Selected Poems: Summer Knowledge (New Directions Paperbook, 241) [Paperback]

Delmore Schwartz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 17, 1967 | Series: New Directions Paperbook, 241

“Every point of view, every kind of knowledge and every kind of experience is limited and ignorant: nevertheless so far as l know, this volume seems to me to be as representative as it could be.—-Delmore Schwartz

When this book was first published (as Summer Knowledge) in 1959. Delmore Schwartz was still riding a crest, the golden boy of the literary scene—a position he had commanded ever since the appearance of his first collection of stories and poems in 1938. Summer Knowledge won for him both the prestigious Bollingen Prize in Poetry and the Poetry Society of America’s Shelley Memorial Award. lronically, indeed tragically, the praise and prizes Schwartz's poems received did not forestall his decline, and this, his poetic testament, proved to be a final one as well. Overcome by mental illness, alienated from his friends and supporters, he disappeared from the literary scene, in the end to die in 1966 in an obscure Broadway hotel. The tragedy of his life pales before the triumph of his art and craft. Selected Poems clearly places him among the foremost poets of his generation.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“An authentically poetic distillation of the passionately experienced intellectual history of two decades. Each poem struggles manfully' and knowingly for its own aesthetic and ethical stability, and the whole book reads like a passionate confession of intellectual and ethical vicissitude.” (Washington Post )

“Poems in a great diversity of manners and meters, all marked by inventive workmanship. all spoken in a personal voice.” (Bollingen Prize citation )

“The lyricism and questioning quality of Delmore Schwartz’s poetry has long since made him one of the more significant of America's younger poets .... Shades of Yeats. the Freudian spectre, Christianity, Marx, the urgent voices of classic sensuality, the uneasy eagerness of the international all filter through here in the lens of Delmore Schwartz's uniquely evocative diction.” (Virginia Kirkus Bulletin )

About the Author

Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966) was born and raised in Brooklyn. One of America’s greatest poets and short-story writers, Schwartz contributed “In Dreams Begin Responsibilities” to the first issue of Partisan Review in 1937. Schwartz taught at Syracuse, Princeton, and Kenyon College, and received the Bollingen Prize in 1959. After a difficult period of alchoholism and depression, he died of a heart attack in 1966.

Product Details

• Paperback: 242 pages
• Publisher: New Directions (June 17, 1967)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811201910
• ISBN-13: 978-0811201919
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #486,948 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful poet, lost to our age, December 14, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (State College, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selected Poems: Summer Knowledge (New Directions Paperbook, 241) (Paperback)

Delmore Schwartz was well recognized in his day, but has since lapsed into obscurity. His range of style is enormous, and his talent is superior. I recommend this work to anybody who is interested in poetry as the mainstay of a reading diet. It is truly outstanding. I don't know how I managed to earn a bachelor's degree in poetry without ever having read Delmore Schwartz. I hope that there are others like him waiting to be found . . .

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hail The Kingdom of Poetry, August 11, 2000

By 

Gary Sprandel (Frankfort, Kentucky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Selected Poems: Summer Knowledge (New Directions Paperbook, 241) (Paperback)

I was first drawn to Schwartz via Saul Bellow's book Humboldts Gift. Although his rise and fall may be sad, what I am struck by here is the breadth of his poetry. As he says in his poem "The Kingdom of Poetry: "Poetry is quick as tigers, clever as cats, vivid as oranges". In his work, there are dark passages as "The Heavy Bear that goes with me" on the clumsiness of physical body. In contrast, there is the joyous morning song of "A small score" with song of crickets and the bubble of birds. Throughout there is the juxtaposition of classical images, as in "Plato's cave" and modern sensibility of the soul. In the longer series of poems Coriolanus and His Mother, the Roman characters of Brutus, and Marcius are interspersed with Freud and a semblance of standup comedy. I recommend this book, for its diversity and depth ... some of the images have remained with me over a decade now.

Those who have read his short stories "In Dreams begin responsibilities" will enjoy the twist of the words in the selection of poems in the section "The Dreams which begin in responsibilities".