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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.

— Karl Shapiro

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Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: "Interludes" III, in From Darkness To Light : A Confession of Faith in the form of an Anthology (1956) edited by Victor Gollancz
Source quality: Source identified Names the work or year, but without an exact location.

More by Karl Shapiro

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.

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

Paris Review interview (1986)

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More quotes by Karl Shapiro

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)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Karl Shapiro (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.