Delmore Schwartz

Delmore Schwartz (1913 - 1966)

Delmore Schwartz (December 8, 1913 – 1966) was an American poet from Brooklyn, New York. His first published work was the short story “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities“, which was published in 1937 in the Partisan Review. This and other short stories and poems were collected and released in his first book, In Dreams Begin Responsibilities and Other Stories (1938). It was well-received, and made him a well-known figure in New York intellectual circles. There he became known as a democratic Socialist, and associated with Irving Howe.

Over the next three decades he published numerous stories, poems, and plays, and edited the Partisan Review from 1943 to 1955. In 1959, he became the youngest recipient of the Bollingen Prize, awarded for a collection of poetry he released that year, Summer Knowledge: New and Selected Poems. His poem “Calmly We Walk Through This April’s Day” from this collection, along with “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities”, inspired the Star Trek movie Star Trek: Generations.

The expression “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities” is a favorite among literary intellectuals and shows up in unexpected places (i.e. the movie Deep Cover).

However, his later life was marred by alcoholism and finally insanity; this downward spiral following his initial success formed the basis for Saul Bellow’s novel Humboldt’s Gift.

In 1962, Schwartz began teaching creative writing at Syracuse University. One of his students was Lou Reed, who dedicated several songs to his mentor (most notably “European Son”).

Poems By Delmore Schwartz

Miscellaneous

A Dream Of Whitman Paraphrased, Recognized And Made More Vivid By Renoir (1 Comment »)
A Young Child And His Pregnant Mother (No Comments »)
Albert Einstein To Archibald Macleish (No Comments »)
All Night, All Night (No Comments »)
America, America! (No Comments »)
Apollo Musagete, Poetry, And The Leader Of The Muses (1 Comment »)
Archaic Bust Of Apollo (No Comments »)
At This Moment Of Time (No Comments »)
By Circumstances Fed (No Comments »)
Calmly We Walk Through This April’s Day (No Comments »)
Cambridge, Spring 1937 (No Comments »)
Concerning The Synthetic Unity Of Apperception (No Comments »)
Far Rockaway (No Comments »)
Faust In Old Age (No Comments »)
For The One Who Would Not Take His Life In His Hands (No Comments »)
For The One Who Would Take Man’s Life In His Hands (No Comments »)
From The Graveyard By The Sea (No Comments »)
From: A King Of Kings, A King Among The Kings (No Comments »)
In The Naked Bed, In Plato’s Cave (3 Comments »)
In The Slight Ripple, The Mind Perceives The Heart (No Comments »)
Late Autumn In Venice (No Comments »)
Love And Marilyn Monroe (No Comments »)
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (No Comments »)
News Of The Gold World Of May (No Comments »)
Now He Knows All There Is To Know. Now He Is Acquainted With The Day And Night (No Comments »)
O Love, Sweet Animal (No Comments »)
Occasional Poems (No Comments »)
Out Of The Watercolored Window, When You Look (No Comments »)
Parlez-Vous Francais? (No Comments »)
Philology Recapitulates Ontology, Poetry Is Ontology (No Comments »)
Phoenix Lyrics (No Comments »)
Poem (Faithful to your commands, o consciousness) (No Comments »)
Poem (In the morning, when it was raining) (No Comments »)
Poem (Old man in the crystal morning after snow) (No Comments »)
Poem (Remember midsummer: the fragrance of box) (No Comments »)
Poem (You, my photographer, you, most aware) (No Comments »)
Prothalamion (1 Comment »)
Saint, Revolutionist (No Comments »)
Socrates Ghost Must Haunt Me Now (1 Comment »)
Someone Is Harshly Coughing As Before (No Comments »)
Sonnet On Famous And Familiar Sonnets And Experiences (No Comments »)
Sonnet Suggested By Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Vakzy, James Joyce, Et Al. (No Comments »)
Sonnet: O City, City (No Comments »)
Sonnet: The Ghosts Of James And Peirce In Harvard Yard (No Comments »)
Spiders (1 Comment »)
The Ballad Of The Children Of The Czar (No Comments »)
The Ballet Of The Fifth Year (No Comments »)
The Beautiful American Word, Sure (No Comments »)
The Choir And Music Of Solitude And Silence (No Comments »)
The First Night Of Fall And Falling Rain (No Comments »)
The Greatest Thing In North America (No Comments »)
The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me (1 Comment »)
The Journey Of A Poem Compared To All The Sad Variety Of Travel (No Comments »)
The Poet (1 Comment »)
The Sin Of Hamlet (1 Comment »)
The Spring (7 Comments »)
This Is A Poem I Wrote At Night, Before The Dawn (No Comments »)
Tired And Unhappy, You Think Of Houses (No Comments »)
To Helen (1 Comment »)
Two Lyrics From Kilroy’s Carnival: A Masque (No Comments »)
What Curious Dresses All Men Wear (1 Comment »)
What Is To Be Given (No Comments »)
Words For A Trumpet Chorale Celebrating The Autumn (No Comments »)
Yeats Died Saturday In France (No Comments »)