If the task of reading Delmore Schwartz's poetry seems more difficult than it should be, it may be that one finds it difficult to reconcile the reputation of the poet … with the poems themselves. I make this general and possibly incorrect remark to suggest that [the] recently published selection of Schwartz's poems What Is to Be Given might better serve to revive interest in Schwartz's work if Douglas Dunn's thorough Introduction had been placed as an Afterword. Schwartz's work needs to be properly placed, and the only way this seems possible is for a fair and unprejudiced reading of the poems; this is unlikely to occur if all we hear is, "'We poets in our youth begin in sadness; thereof in the end comes despondency and madness'."

Although Schwartz actually was one of the brilliant poets of that generation including Lowell, Berryman, and Jarrell, the reader may find very little to suggest a connection with these poets, so little that such a comparison seems to be made out of deference to certain friendships. The fact is that Schwartz was the first of this generation. We can see the influence of Schwartz on Berryman's early poems. Schwartz is overpowering in his unrelentless seriousness (seriousness not sincerity) and in asking the right questions for his generation…. (p. 118)

The questions that Schwartz asks do rank him with that generation already mentioned, but his style is obviously not as easily placed. Schwartz is the philosopher of that generation and his work never made the kind of surface and stylistic changes which Lowell and Berryman made. Neither the ironic flamboyant personality of Berryman, the historical energy of Lowell, nor the Frost-like monologues of Jarrell are found in Schwartz. Instead, Schwartz presents abstractions of philosophy through language charged with the hopeful energies of love and the annihilating pessimism of egotistical despair. (p. 119)