Schwartz, Delmore (Vol. 2) - Schwartz, Delmore 1913–1966
Schwartz, Delmore 1913–1966
An American poet, playwright, and critic, Schwartz is best known for In Dreams Begin Responsibilities and Summer Knowledge. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 17-18; obituary, Vols. 25-28.)
[Delmore] Schwartz's main theme has been what he calls 'the wound of consciousness.' Although he has not been able to push through to anything like the ruthless self-revelation of Lowell or Theodore Roethke, he has again and again stated the unrelenting moral crises which make it so necessary. His poetry relates them to the inescapable demands of the 'dog named ego,' the relentless insistences of the body ('the heavy bear that walks with me'), the weight of history and the physical world around us, pressures forever scrutinized by the eye of the protagonist's pervasive guilt.
M. L. Rosenthal, in his The Modern Poets: A Critical Introduction (© 1960 by M. L. Rosenthal; reprinted by...
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