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!)

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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