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Karl Shapiro (10 November 1913 – 14 May 2000 / Baltimore, Maryland)
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Karl Shapiro 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.
Karl Shapiro wrote poetry in the Pacific Theater while he served there during World War II. His collection V-Letter and Other Poems, written while Shapiro was stationed in New Guinea, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1945, while Shapiro was still in the military. Shapiro was American Poet Laureate in 1946 and 1947. (At the time this title was Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress which was changed by Congress in ... more »
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Popular Poems
- A Garden In Chicago
- Aside
- Buick
- California Winter
- Conscription Camp
- Going to School
- Love for a Hand
- Manhole Covers
- Sunday: New Guinea
- The Alphabet
- The Conscientious Objector
- The Dome Of Sunday
- The Fly
- The Intellectual
Quotations
more quotations »-
''Its quick silver bell beating, beating
Karl Shapiro (b. 1913), U.S. poet, critic. Auto Wreck (l. 1-3). . . New & Selected Poems, 1940-1986 [Karl Shapiro]. (1987) University of Chicago P...
And down the dark one ruby flare
Pulsing out red light like an artery,''
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''But this invites the occult mind,
Karl Shapiro (b. 1913), U.S. poet, critic. Auto Wreck (l. 35-38). . . New & Selected Poems, 1940-1986 [Karl Shapiro]. (1987) University of Chicago...
Cancels our physics with a sneer,
And spatters all we knew of denouement
Across the expedient and wicked stones.''
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''Already old, the question Who shall die?
Karl Shapiro (b. 1913), U.S. poet, critic. Auto Wreck (l. 31-32). . . New & Selected Poems, 1940-1986 [Karl Shapiro]. (1987) University of Chicago...
Becomes unspoken Who is innocent?''
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''We are deranged, walking among the cops
Karl Shapiro (b. 1913), U.S. poet, critic. Auto Wreck (l. 15-16). . . New & Selected Poems, 1940-1986 [Karl Shapiro]. (1987) University of Chicago...
Who sweep glass and are large and composed.''
