Poem by Delmore Schwartz

O Love, Sweet Animal

O Love, dark animal,
With your strangeness go
Like any freak or clown:
Appease tee child in her
Because she is alone
Many years ago
Terrified by a look
Which was not meant for her.
Brush your heavy fur
Against her, long and slow
Stare at her like a book,
Her interests being such
No one can look too much.
Tell her how you know
Nothing can be taken
Which has not been given:
For you time is forgiven:
Informed by hell and heaven
You are not mistaken

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

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