22
PARTISAN REVIEW
problem is ultimately dependent for its solution on the problem of
love. And this is the problem of what is to become of the individual
in a culture which, by reason of its structure and fundamental
naivete in regard to the human individual and his needs, is incap·
able of providing him with adequate objects of transcendence. The
lonely and somewhat grotesque figure of Henri Beyle gazing down
upon the ruins of the Holy City is a symbol of a society without
love,-a society which has so far forgotten the meaning and im·
portance of love as to be doomed to pay the consequences.
Separation
All day I have been completely alone, and now the night
Descends, swathing in shadow and swaddling all,
And all but a smother and blur is bandaged from sight,
Blots and blotches of shadow clotting on ceiling and wall.
I lift the glass chimney and light the oil-lamp's wick,
The quick lick of the flame flickers, and shadows distend,
The elongations of fingers sprawl on the wall, and the tick
Of the tin clock in the silence and the tick of my pulse contend.
In this prolongation of solitude, I am estranged
Even from myself, in you; in your absence I dwindle apart
In a ghostly attenuation of feeling, till all my deranged
Consciousness aches in the void for the physical thud of your heart.
D. S. Savage
