‘The Greatest Thing in North America’: Delmore Schwartz and Europe

Abstract

An argument is presented that Delmore Schwartz’s celebrations of his European literary heritage accentuate the ways in which he might be regarded as a specifically American poet: he cannot help but Americanize his European sources. These engagements also, however, unsettle the notion of a purely American poetry since they suggest that American writing can only be understood in relation to English and European traditions. Taking his concept of ‘international consciousness’ as its premise, the study examines how Schwartz’s allusions simultaneously serve to align his poetry with European works and to distance it from them. It also assesses Schwartz’s admiration for the international perspectives of modernist mentors (particularly T. S. Eliot), observing how this aspect of their work influences his own. A reading of ‘The Ballad of the Children of the Czar’, a poem in which Schwartz characteristically sets individual experience against a worldwide stage, is also given.