Auto Wreck

An ambulance rushes to the scene of an accident, and hurriedly gathers up the victims before rushing them away.

The poet then explores the emotions felt by the spectators before finally raising the philosophical question of why those particular people had died -- were they innocent, or were they guilty of something deserving death?

Karl Jay Shapiro was born in Baltimore in November 1913. Although he studied at the University of Virginia (1932-33) and later at Johns Hopkins University (1937-39), he nevertheless never earned a college degree.

He served in the army for the duration of World War II and it was then that his poetry began to be published. He would send poems home to his fiancé, who had them printed.

His first collection -- V-Letter and Other Poems -- was published in 1944. It portrayed the feelings of soldiers who were fighting for their country during the war but whose letters were censored before being delivered to their loved-ones back at home.

As early as 1945 Shapiro won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for this work. He was then only 32 years of age.

He was therefore already a noted man of letters by the time he returned from the war, enabling him to become the American Poet Laureate in 1946 and 1947 -- a title which at the time meant "Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress".

Despite his lack of the usual academic credentials, Shapiro not only served as editor of two prestigious journals -- Poetry: A Magazine Of Verse and Prairie Schooner -- but he also taught at a number of campuses including Johns Hopkins University, the University of Nebraska and the University of Chicago.

He was a professor at the University of California when he retired in the mid-1980s.

Shapiro was awarded several prizes for poetry, including the Shelley Memorial Prize (1945), two Guggenheim Fellowships (1945-46 and 1962-63), and the Bollingen Prize (1968).

He was also elected to a number of prestigious organizations, such as the National Institute of Arts & Letters, the National Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the Library of Congress's Fellows in American Letters.

Contrary to a statement in a prescribed anthology, Shapiro was NOT "married and divorced" to several "young students". Indeed, he was married only three times.

The first was in 1945 and it was to his editor and agent, Evelyn Katz, with whom he had two children. This marriage lasted 22 years but ended in divorce in 1967.

That very year he married to Teri Kovach but she died in 1982, leaving him free to marry once again. He would, however, wait another three years before doing so, this time to Sophie Wilkens.

She would survive him when he himself died in New York in May 2000. He was then 86 years of age.

Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:


"We are deranged, walking among the cops
Who sweep glass and are large and composed."

• Up until now, the poet has focussed on the ambulance. The focus now changes to the experience of the spectators. What word tells us about this change? (1)

[Need help?]

"We".

• How old was the narrator when he witnessed these horrific events? How do you know? (2)

[Need help?]

It is possible that the narrator is remembering an incident from when he was a little boy. A policeman would have appeared "large and composed" to a little guy. It is also possibly a little boy's fertile imagination which enables him to remember the white ambulance in the guise of a large white bird.

• How many "cops" were involved in supervising the clean-up? How do you know? (3)

[Need help?]

There are at least three "cops": one making notes, one cleaning up the blood and a third hanging lights on the wreckage.

• What type of word is "cops"? (1)

[Need help?]

The word "cops" is a COLLOQUIALISM.

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"One with a bucket douches ponds of blood
Into the street and gutter."

• The cop with the bucket "douches ponds of blood". Why has the poet specifically used the word "douches"? (2)

[Need help?]

A douche is a stream of water, often containing medicinal or cleansing agents, that is applied to a body part or cavity for hygienic or therapeutic purposes. This is more than just cleaning: it is disinfecting.

• Comment on the metaphor "ponds of blood". Why not "pools of blood"? (4)

[Need help?]

There is such an immense difference in proportion between "pools of blood" and "ponds of blood". The former description would describe a serious enough accident but "ponds of blood" conjures up the image of so much blood that the people could not possibly still be alive.

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"One hangs lanterns on the wrecks that cling,
Empty husks of locusts, to iron poles."

• Why has the poet chosen the image "empty husks of locusts" to describe the wrecks? (4)

[Need help?]

The term "empty husks of locusts" describes the body of a creature where all the flesh has been picked away. There is nothing left except the empty husk. The poet uses this description for the auto wreck which is so serious that the flesh (the bodies) has had to be picked away. The car is now mangled bits of steel where the bodies themselves have been turned almost into pulp which has had to be picked away.

• The poet has used the word "Auto wreck" (singular) in the title of this poet. Yet in these lines above, he refers to "the wrecks" (plural). Can you account for this change? (2)

[Need help?]

In the title, the poet is talking about a single accident where just one car has been involved. The accident, however, was so serious that the car has been ripped apart. There is therefore not just one wreck but several pieces of wreck.

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