Karl Shapiro Quotes

• To make the child in your own image is a capital crime, for your image is not worth repeating. The child knows this and you know it. Consequently you hate each other.

  Karl Shapiro

• The good poet sticks to his real loves, those within the realm of possibility. He never tries to hold hands with God or the human race.

  Karl Shapiro

• The doctor punched my vein, the captain called me Cain, upon my belly sat the sow of fear.

  Karl Shapiro

• The body, what is it, Father, but a sign To love the force that grows us, to give back What in Thy palm is senselessness and mud?

  Karl Shapiro

• Poetry is innocent, not wise. It does not learn from experience, because each poetic experience is unique.

  Karl Shapiro

• My soul is now her day, my day her night, So I lie down, and so I rise.

  Karl Shapiro

• Laughter and grief join hands. Always the heart Clumps in the breast with heavy stride; The face grows lined and wrinkled like a chart, The eyes bloodshot with tears and tide. Let the wind blow, for many a man shall die.

  Karl Shapiro

• Lastly, his tomb shall list and founder in the troughs of grass. And none shall speak his name.

  Karl Shapiro

• In the tight belly of the dead, Burrow with hungry head, And inlay maggots like a jewel.

  Karl Shapiro

• But with exquisite breathing you smile, with satisfaction of love, And I touch you again as you tick in the silence and settle in sleep.

  Karl Shapiro

• Already old, the question Who shall die? Becomes unspoken Who is innocent?

  Karl Shapiro

Karl Shapiro (11)

Birth:	10th November, 1913
Death:	14th May, 2000
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Poet

About

Karl Jay Shapiro was an American poet. He was appointed the fifth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1946. He attended the University of Virginia before World War II, and immortalized it in a scathing poem called "University," which noted that "to hate the Negro and avoid the Jew is the curriculum." He did not return after his military service.

Related Authors

• Ernest William Hornung
• Chief Dan George
• Richard Lovelace
• Tyler Knott Gregson
• Ellen Sturgis Hooper
• James Baker Hall
• Robert Graves
• Agathon
• Ted Kooser
• Charles Causley

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 2nd June

Births

• 1978 - Nikki Cox
• 1946 - Lasse Hallstrom
• 1944 - Marvin Hamlisch
• 1972 - Wayne Brady
• 1939 - Paul Williams

Deaths

• 1996 - Raymond Neil Combs Jr.
• 1992 - Philip Dunne
• 1988 - Raj Kapoor
• 2012 - Richard Dawson
• 1941 - Lou Gehrig