35 The Heavy Bear by Delmore Schwartz
In this poem, Schwartz likens his body to a “heavy bear who goes with me,” distorting or thwarting the finer self he longs to present.
“That heavy animal” is a creature of crude appetites, for “candy, anger and sleep.” He is a “show-off,” but fears death. He interposes himself between the poet widens to encompass not just the individual problem of the poet’s appetites, but also “the scrimmage of appetite everywhere.” – Leon Kass
The Heavy Bear
“the withness of the body”
Watch The Tao of Pooh (5:43) for a short explanation of the Chinese philosophy of Tao, signifying the “way”, “path”, “route”, “road” or sometimes more loosely “doctrine”, “principle” or “holistic beliefs.”
Consider this:
- The poet has a will that is not expressed in his physical self. Is he unhappy to have his particular body, or to have a body at all?
- What would the poet like to be?
- What is the word that would “bare my heart and make me clear”? Why does he not speak?
- Is the poet fair to the body? To “himself” ? Could there be poetry in the absence of “the heavy bear?”