All Night, All Night by Delmore Schwartz

<p>Production and Sound Design by Kevin Seaman</p><p>All Night, All Night</p><p>by Delmore Schwartz</p><p>Rode in the train all night, in the sick light. A bird</p><p>Flew parallel with a singular will. In daydream's moods and</p><p>attitudes</p><p>The other passengers slumped, dozed, slept, read,</p><p>Waiting, and waiting for place to be displaced</p><p>On the exact track of safety or the rack of accident.</p><p> </p><p>Looked out at the night, unable to distinguish</p><p>Lights in the towns of passage from the yellow lights</p><p>Numb on the ceiling. And the bird flew parallel and still</p><p>As the train shot forth the straight line of its whistle,</p><p>Forward on the taut tracks, piercing empty, familiar --</p><p> </p><p>The bored center of this vision and condition looked and</p><p>looked</p><p>Down through the slick pages of the magazine (seeking</p><p>The seen and the unseen) and his gaze fell down the well</p><p>Of the great darkness under the slick glitter,</p><p>And he was only one among eight million riders and</p><p>readers.</p><p> </p><p>And all the while under his empty smile the shaking drum</p><p>Of the long determined passage passed through him</p><p>By his body mimicked and echoed. And then the train</p><p>Like a suddenly storming rain, began to rush and thresh--</p><p>The silent or passive night, pressing and impressing</p><p>The patients' foreheads with a tightening-like image</p><p>Of the rushing engine proceeded by a shaft of light</p><p>Piercing the dark, changing and transforming the silence</p><p>Into a violence of foam, sound, smoke and succession.</p><p> </p><p>A bored child went to get a cup of water,</p><p>And crushed the cup because the water too was</p><p>Boring and merely boredom's struggle.</p><p>The child, returning, looked over the shoulder</p><p>Of a man reading until he annoyed the shoulder.</p><p>A fat woman yawned and felt the liquid drops</p><p>Drip down the fleece of many dinners.</p><p> </p><p>And the bird flew parallel and parallel flew</p><p>The black pencil lines of