Nov 16, 2009

In the Naked Bed, in Plato’s Cave | In the Naked Bed, in Plato’s Cave

At a glance:

Author: Delmore Schwartz
First Published: 1938
Type of Work: 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 1254 words long]

In the Naked Bed, in Plato’s Cave | In the Naked Bed, in Plato’s Cave

At a glance:

The Poem

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