Delmore Schwartz: By Circumstances Fed

By circumstances fed
Which divide attention
Among the living and the dead,
Under the blooms of the blossoming sun,
The gaze which is a tower towers
Day and night, hour by hour,
Critical of all and of one,
Dissatisfied with every flower
With all that’s been done or undone,
Converting every feature
Into its own and unknown nature;
So, once in the drugstore,
Amid all the poppy, salve and ointment,
I suddenly saw, estranged there,
Beyond all disappointment,
My own face in the mirror.

~~~~

Delmore Schwartz (1913 – 1966) did graduate work in philosophy at Harvard University, where he studied with the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead. Schwartz received acclaim for his first collection In Dreams Begin Responsibilities, published when he was 25 years old, but problems with alcoholism and mental illness prevented him from fulfilling his early promise. Nevertheless, his work had a strong influence on other writers including John Berryman, Lou Reed and Robert Lowell. Saul Bellow’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Humboldt’s Gift was based on his relationship with Schwartz.

From In Dreams Begin Responsibilities (New Directions, 1938)