Karl Shapiro Quotes

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

  Karl Shapiro

  Wise, Unique, Library

  Karl Jay Shapiro (2004). “Creative Glut: Selected Essays of Karl Shapiro”, Ivan R. Dee Publisher

  45 Copy quote

• Poetry is not a way of saying things; it's a way of seeing things.

  Karl Shapiro

  Way, Poetry Is, Seeing

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• Self-knowledge is a dangerous thing, tending to make man shallow or insane.

  Karl Shapiro

  Men, Self, Insane

  Karl Shapiro (1964). “the Bourgeois Poet”

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• The proverbist knows nothing of the two sides of a question. He knows only the roundness of answers.

  Karl Shapiro

  Two Sides, Answers, Maxims

  Karl Shapiro (1964). “the Bourgeois Poet”

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• 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

  Smile, Sleep, Breathing

  Karl Jay Shapiro, Stanley Kunitz, David Ignatow (1998). “The Wild Card: Selected Poems, Early and Late”, p.18, University of Illinois Press

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• How something important happens is the business of historians and newspapers, the effect it has is the business of philosophers and writers and especially poets.

  Karl Shapiro

  Important, Events, Philosopher

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• 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

  Children, Hate, Crime

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• Poets of course are even more unpredictable than other writers, overwhelmed as they are by the moment they inhabit and finding it difficult to connect yesterday with tomorrow.

  Karl Shapiro

  Yesterday, Overwhelmed, Tomorrow

  Karl Jay Shapiro, Richard O'Barry (1990). “Poet: An Autobiography in Three Parts”

  4 Copy quote

• Keelhaul the poets in the vestry chairs.

  Karl Shapiro

  Poet, Chairs

  Karl Shapiro (1964). “the Bourgeois Poet”

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

  Karl Shapiro

  Real, Race, Hands

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• 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

  Father, Giving, Body

  Karl Jay Shapiro (1953). “Poems, 1940-1953”, New York : Random House

  7 Copy quote

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

  Karl Shapiro

  Lying, Night, Soul

  Karl Jay Shapiro, Stanley Kunitz, David Ignatow (1998). “The Wild Card: Selected Poems, Early and Late”, p.21, University of Illinois Press

  4 Copy quote

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

  Karl Shapiro

  Innocence, Innocent, Dies

  Karl Jay Shapiro, Stanley Kunitz, David Ignatow (1998). “The Wild Card: Selected Poems, Early and Late”, p.7, University of Illinois Press

  7 Copy quote

• Haul up the flag, you mourners, Not half-mast but all the way; The funeral is done and disbanded; The devil's had the final say.

  Karl Shapiro

  Funeral, Devil, Finals

  56 Copy quote

• Every war is its own excuse. That's why they're all surrounded with ideals. That's why they're all crusades.

  Karl Shapiro

  War, Excuse, Crusades

  Karl Shapiro (1964). “the Bourgeois Poet”

  4 Copy quote

• The modern essay has regained a good deal of its literary status in our time, much to the credit of Joseph Epstein.

  Karl Shapiro

  Credit, Modern, Deals

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• A man's house is his stage. Others walk on to play their bit parts. Now and again a soliloquy, a birth, an adultery.

  Karl Shapiro

  Men, Play, House

  Karl Shapiro (1964). “the Bourgeois Poet”

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• Lawyers love paper. They eat, sleep and dream paper. They turn paper into gold, and their files are colorful and their language neoclassical and calli-graphically bewigged.

  Karl Shapiro

  Dream, Sleep, Gold

  Karl Jay Shapiro, Richard O'Barry (1990). “Poet: An Autobiography in Three Parts”

  4 Copy quote

• Leo Connellan has retained his soul and voice in Provincetown and Other Poems.

  Karl Shapiro

  Voice, Soul, Provincetown

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• 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

  Happiness, Laughter, Grief

  Harriet Monroe, Morton Dauwen Zabel, George Dillon, Karl Jay Shapiro, Henry Rago (1943). “Poetry”

  7 Copy quote

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