Karl Shapiro Quotes

1913–2000 United States

Karl Jay Shapiro (10 November 1913 – 14 May 2000) was an American poet, appointed as the fifth Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1946.

United States
20th-century poets
Poets

Random Karl Shapiro quote

8 quotes

The public has an unusual relationship to the poet: It doesn't even know that he is there.

As a third generation American I grew up with the obsessive idea of personal liberty which engrosses all Americans except the oldest and richest families.

The Poems of a Jew (1958)

Whitman to me is the most fascinating of American poets.

Paris Review interview (1986)

The poet is in exile whether he is or he is not.

Paris Review interview (1986)

I feel that after working a long time, I’ve really learned how to do what I do. I enjoy it.

Paris Review interview (1986)

Writing, I crushed an insect with my nail
And thought nothing at all. A bit of wing
Caught my eye then, a gossamer so frail And exquisite, I saw in it a thing
That scorned the grossness of the thing I wrote.
It hung upon my finger like a sting.

Then in my heart a fear
Cried out, "A life — why, beautiful, why dead!" It was a mite that held itself most dear,
So small I could have drowned it with a tear.

Words like “spokesman” and “touchstone” took me completely by surprise.

Paris Review interview (1986)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Karl Shapiro (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.