In the Naked Bed, in Plato's Cave
by Delmore Schwartz
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At a glance:
- Author: Delmore Schwartz
- First Published: 1938
- Type of Poem: Lyric
- Genres: Poetry, Lyric poetry
- Subjects: History, Philosophy or philosophers, Mythology or myths, Consciousness, Greece or Greek people, Caves, Sleep, Insomnia
The Poem
Like many other poems by Delmore Schwartz, this—the author’s most frequently anthologized piece—takes its title from its first line, which provides the work with an intriguing and memorable opening. This is matched by an equally powerful, if dispiriting, concluding statement. The poem is thus securely framed.
Structurally, the poem is made up of two compact blocks of text, each about fourteen lines long. Hence, one might regard it as a rhymeless double sonnet. It would be perhaps more accurate to say that each half of the poem behaves like a double octave...
(The entire page is 1258 words.)
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