Tiger Christ unsheathed his sword,
Threw it down, became a lamb.

(Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966), U.S. poet, critic. For the One Who Would Take Man's Life in His Hands (l. 1-2). . . Modern American & British Poetry. Louis Untermeyer, ed., in consultation with Karl Shapiro and Richard Wilbur. (Rev., shorter ed., 1955) Harcourt, Brace and Company.)

?The strutting show-off is terrified,
Dressed in his dress-suit,bulging his pants,
Trembles to think that his quivering meat
Must finally wince to nothing at all.

(Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966), U.S. poet, critic. The Repetitive Heart (l. 27-31). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.)

The heavy bear who goes with me,
A manifold honey to smear his face,
Clumsy and lumbering here and there,
The central ton of every place,
The hungry beating brutish one
In love with candy, anger, and sleep,

(Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966), U.S. poet, critic. The Repetitive Heart (l. 27-31). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.)

Each minute burstsin the burning room,
The great globe reels in the solar fire,
Spinning the trivial and unique away,
(How all things flash! How all things flare!)

(Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966), U.S. poet, critic. The Repetitive Heart (l. 27-31). . . Oxford Book of American Verse, The. F. O. Matthiessen, ed. (1950) Oxford University Press.)

May memory restore again and again
The smallest color of the smallest day:
Time is the school in which we learn,
Time is the fire in which we burn.

(Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966), U.S. poet, critic. The Repetitive Heart (l. 27-31). . . Oxford Book of American Verse, The. F. O. Matthiessen, ed. (1950) Oxford University Press.)

Troy burned for a sea-tax, also for
Possession of a charming whore.

(Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966), U.S. poet, critic. For the One Who Would Take Man's Life in His Hands (l. 9-10). . . Modern American & British Poetry. Louis Untermeyer, ed., in consultation with Karl Shapiro and Richard Wilbur. (Rev., shorter ed., 1955) Harcourt, Brace and Company.)

MWhat do all examples show?
What can any actor know?
The contradiction in every act,
The infinite task of the human heart."

(Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966), U.S. poet, critic. For the One Who Would Take Man's Life in His Hands (l. 29-32). . . Modern American & British Poetry. Louis Untermeyer, ed., in consultation with Karl Shapiro and Richard Wilbur. (Rev., shorter ed., 1955) Harcourt, Brace and Company.)

Love is the tact of every good,
The only warmth, the only peace.

(Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966), U.S. poet, critic. For the One Who Would Take Man's Life in His Hands (l. 21-22). . . Modern American & British Poetry. Louis Untermeyer, ed., in consultation with Karl Shapiro and Richard Wilbur. (Rev., shorter ed., 1955) Harcourt, Brace and Company.)

Morning, softly
Melting the air, lifted the half-covered chair
From underseas,

(Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966), U.S. poet, critic. In the Naked Bed, in Plato's Cave (l. 21-23). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.)

So, so,
O son of man, the ignorant night, the travail

Of early morning, the mystery of beginning
Again and again,
while History is unforgiven.

(Delmore Schwartz (1913-1966), U.S. poet, critic. In the Naked Bed, in Plato's Cave (l. 27-31). . . Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry, The. Richard Ellmann and Robert O'Clair, eds. (2d ed., 1988) W. W. Norton & Company.)