“A car coughed, starting. Morning softly
Melting the air, lifted the half-covered chair
From underseas, kindled the looking-glass,
Distinguished the dresser and the white wall.
The bird called tentatively, whistled, called,
Bubbled and whistled, so! Perplexed, still wet
With sleep, affectionate, hungry and cold. So, so,
O son of man, the ignorant night, the travail
Of early morning, the mystery of the beginning
Again and again,
while history is unforgiven.”
"In the Naked Bed, in Plato's Cave" http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/in-the-naked-bed-in-plato-s-cave/
Selected Poems: Summer Knowledge (1959)
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Delmore Schwartz 11
American poet 1913–1966Related quotes
"The Streets of Laredo", line 1, from Holes in the Sky (1948)
MacNeice’s poem, a grotesque vision of the London Blitz, is not to be confused with the cowboy ballad "The Streets of Laredo".

Song. Softly, O Midnight Hours; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 721.

Salon interview (2001)
“For out of black
soul's night have stirred
dawn's cold gleam,
morning's singing bird.”
"Black Flag" in Collected Poems (1983)
Context: For out of black
soul's night have stirred
dawn's cold gleam,
morning's singing bird. Let black day die,
let black flag fall,
let raven call,
let new day dawn
of black reborn.

“Thou hast been called, O sleep! the friend of woe;
But ’tis the happy that have called thee so.”
Canto XV, st. 11.
The Curse of Kehama (1810)