English poetry

PoetsBiographiesPoems by ThemesRandom Poem
The Rating of PoetsThe Rating of Poems

Poem by Delmore Schwartz


Albert Einstein to Archibald Macleish


I should have been a plumber fixing drains.
And mending pure white bathtubs for the great Diogenes
(who scorned all lies, all liars, and all tyrannies),

And then, perhaps, he would bestow on me — majesty!
(O modesty aside, forgive my fallen pride, O hidden
     majesty,
The lamp, the lantern, the lucid light he sought for

                 All too often — sick humanity!)



Delmore Schwartz


Delmore Schwartz's other poems:
  1. All Night, All Night
  2. In the Naked Bed, in Plato's Cave
  3. Sonnet Suggested by Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Vakzy, James Joyce, Et Al
  4. Calmly We Walk Through This April's Day
  5. For the One Who Would Take Man's Life in His Hands


Poem to print Print

1655 Views



Last Poems


To Russian version


Ðåéòèíã@Mail.ru

English Poetry. E-mail eng-poetry.ru@yandex.ru