Karl Shapiro

Karl Shapiro

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

Read more about Karl Shapiro:  Biography, Awards

Famous quotes by karl shapiro:

    I sweep. One gyrates like a top and falls
    And stunned, stone blind, and deaf
    Buzzes its frightful F
    And dies between three cannibals.
    Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)

    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 (b. 1913)

    We too are ashes as we watch and hear
    The psalm, the sorrow, and the simple praise
    Of one whose promised thoughts of other days
    Were such as ours, but now wholly destroyed,
    The service record of his youth wiped out,
    His dream dispersed by shot, must disappear.
    Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)

    I see slip to the curb the long machines
    Out of whose warm and windowed rooms pirouette
    Shellacked with silk and light
    The hard legs of our women.
    Karl Shapiro (b. 1913)