Poem by Delmore Schwartz

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

I looked toward the movie, the common dream,
The he and she in close-ups, nearer than life,
And I accepted such things as they seem,

The easy poise, the absence of the knife,
The near summer happily ever after,
The understood question, the immediate strife,

Not dangerous, nor mortal, but the fadeout
Enormously kissing amid warm laughter,
As if such things were not always played out

By an ignorant arm, which crosses the dark
And lights up a thin sheet with a shadow's mark.

1. In the Naked Bed, in Plato's Cave
2. For the One Who Would Take Man's Life in His Hands
3. The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me
4. Sonnet Suggested by Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Vakzy, James Joyce, Et Al
5. In the Slight Ripple, the Mind Perceives the Heart

Print

1750 Views

Last Poems

To Russian version