The Beautiful American Word, Sure

Delmore Schwartz

The beautiful American word, Sure,
As I have come into a room, and touch
The lamp’s button, and the light blooms with such
Certainty where the darkness loomed before,

As I care for what I do not know, and care
Knowing for little she might not have been,
And for how little she would be unseen,
The intercourse of lives miraculous and dear.

Where the light is, and each thing clear,
separate from all others, standing in its place,
I drink the time and touch whatever’s near,

And hope for day when the whole world has that face:
For what assures her present every year?
In dark accidents the mind’s sufficient grace.

Next 10 Poems

• Delmore Schwartz : The Choir And Music Of Solitude And Silence
• Delmore Schwartz : The First Night Of Fall And Falling Rain
• Delmore Schwartz : The Greatest Thing In North America
• Delmore Schwartz : The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me
• Delmore Schwartz : The Journey Of A Poem Compared To All The Sad Variety Of Travel
• Delmore Schwartz : The Poet
• Delmore Schwartz : The Sin Of Hamlet
• Delmore Schwartz : The Spring
• Delmore Schwartz : This Is A Poem I Wrote At Night, Before The Dawn
• Delmore Schwartz : Tired And Unhappy, You Think Of Houses

Previous 10 Poems

• Delmore Schwartz : The Ballet Of The Fifth Year
• Delmore Schwartz : The Ballad Of The Children Of The Czar
• Delmore Schwartz : Spiders
• Delmore Schwartz : Sonnet: The Ghosts Of James And Peirce In Harvard Yard
• Delmore Schwartz : Sonnet: O City, City
• Delmore Schwartz : Sonnet Suggested By Homer, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul Vakzy, James Joyce, Et Al.
• Delmore Schwartz : Sonnet On Famous And Familiar Sonnets And Experiences
• Delmore Schwartz : Someone Is Harshly Coughing As Before
• Delmore Schwartz : Socrates Ghost Must Haunt Me Now
• Delmore Schwartz : Saint, Revolutionist