Delmore Schwartz

Here you will find the Poem The Foggy, Foggy Blue of poet Delmore Schwartz

The Foggy, Foggy Blue

When I was a young man, I loved to write poems 
And I called a spade a spade 
And the only only thing that made me sing 
Was to lift the masks at the masquerade. 
I took them off my own face, 
I took them off others too 
And the only only wrong in all my song 
Was the view that I knew what was true. 


Now I am older and tireder too 
And the tasks with the masks are quite trying. 
I?d gladly gladly stop if I only only knew 
A better way to keep from lying, 
And not get nervous and blue 
When I said something quite untrue: 
I looked all around and all over 
To find something else to do: 
I tried to be less romantic 
I tried to be less starry-eyed too: 
But I only got mixed up and frantic 
Forgetting what was false and what was true. 


But tonight I am going to the masked ball, 
Because it has occurred to me 
That the masks are more true than the faces: 
?Perhaps this too is poetry? 
I no longer yearn to be naïve and stern 
And masked balls fascinate me: 
Now that I know that most falsehoods are true 
Perhaps I can join the charade? 
This is, at any rate, my new and true view: 
Let live and believe, I say. 
The only only thing is to believe in everything: 
It?s more fun and safer that way!