Poem by Delmore Schwartz

Cambridge, Spring 1937

At last the air fragrant, the bird's bubbling whistle
Succinct in the unknown unsettled trees:
O little Charles, beside the Georgian colleges
And milltown New England; at last the wind soft,
The sky unmoving, and the dead look
Of factory windows separate, at last,
From windows gray and wet:
                                           for now the sunlight
Thrashes its wet shellac on brickwalk and gutter,
White splinters streak midmorning and doorstep,
Winter passes as the lighted streetcar
Moves at midnight, one scene of the past,
Droll and unreal, stiff, stilted and hooded.

1. In the Naked Bed, in Plato's Cave
2. In the Slight Ripple, the Mind Perceives the Heart
3. A Young Child and His Pregnant Mother
4. The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me
5. For the One Who Would Take Man's Life in His Hands

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