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Scarlatti

By James Schuyler 1923–1991 James Schuyler

last night

locked in

the castle

of pride and

egotism

goes on two

legs

Webern

orchestrated a

sky the clouds

move to a

bass

an instrument not

an oboe, gray

on light-gray in

blue and green

goes by

on glass

Schoenberg

serenades with

a view through

to where

a girl

swings

her

body displaced

against the

pull of her

hands head-

high on the

ropes

night

before the night

before last

unlocked the castle

of pride and

egotism

bliss

clouds stand

and go by

Source: Poetry (November 2009).

Biography

Pulitzer Prize winning poet James Schuyler was a central member of the New York School. He was born in Chicago, Illinois and spent his teen years in East Aurora, New York, before attending Bethany College in West Virginia. During World War II, Schuyler served on a destroyer in the North Atlantic and remained in the US Navy until 1947. Before moving to New York in 1950, Schuyler lived for two years on the Isle of Ischia in Italy . . .

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