KARL SHAPIRO: Poems of a Jew (1958)

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="039f0f21egerdp.jpg"> <div> <B>KARL SHAPIRO: Poems of a Jew (1958)</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="038f2f02egerdp.jpg"> <div> <A HREF="lecture_teaching.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Lecture/Teaching Topics for Adults"><U><B>Lecture/Teaching Topics for Adults</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id65.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Teenager Education Topics "><U><B>Teenager Education Topics</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id76.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" SOME OF OUR GREAT POETS"><U><B>Some of Our Great Poets</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id80.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="CHARLES REZNIKOFF: The City and Its Imag"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Charles Reznikoff</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id83.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ADRIENNE RICH (1929): The Writer and the"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Adrienne Rich</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact JEWISH VOICES"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Contact JEWISH VOICES</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Jewish Voices 200 Years of Jewish Poetry"><U><B><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="Wing0a73007700f099000000.gif" HEIGHT="16" WIDTH="24" ALIGN="bottom" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0">Home</B></U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="03bf0f03.jpg"> <div> <B>Karl Shapiro (1913-2000): </B><I><B> </B></I><I><B>Poems of a Jew</B></I><I><B> </B></I><I><B>(1958) </B></I></div> <bR> <bR> <div>     Shapiro, the first 20th-century American Jewish poet to achieve genuine fame (he won a 1945 Pulitzer Prize), has been unjustifiably neglected in recent decades---because he writes bluntly about race and class relations? about prejudice? about the complexity of his Jewishness? because his language is tough, gritty, precise without being pretty?    </div> <bR> <div>      Shapiro’s Poems of a Jew (1958) is a revealing collection of autobiographical poems concerning his Lithuanian heritage, images of circumcision and covenant, the creation of Israel, and  the condition of exile.  His warfares with mainstream traditions are notoriously refreshing ---satiric, sometimes surreal, always ethically (and ethnically) compelling.</div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>