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# The Poet as Thief
- URL: https://www.merionwest.com/the-poet-as-thief/
- Published: 2026-01-18T21:21:01.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-01T22:24:00.000Z
- Description: W. D. Ehrhart
- Author: MW Editors
- Tags: Poetry, Arts

> “Donc le poète est vraiment voleur de feu.”

> — Arthur Rimbaud

> Was Prometheus a poet?

> Rimbaud says he was, stealing fire

> from the gods: technology, knowledge,

> human arts and sciences. He paid

> a terrible price for his audacity.

> Whatever was he thinking?

> Look what we have done

> with what he gave us. Okay,

> we’ve got the *Mona Lisa*, *Hamlet*,

> Bernini’s *Apollo and Daphne*,

> movable type, the Brooklyn Bridge.

> But how about the Spanish Inquisition,

> the siege of Münster, TNT, mustard

> gas, the Maxim gun, flame throwers,

> the Holocaust, Rwandan genocide, 

> Predator drones, Hellfire missiles,

> thermonuclear bombs?

> Thanks a lot, Prometheus.

> Poor sucker. I’d have to say

> you didn’t do us any favors.

  
### W. D. Ehrhart's most recent books are a 2025 collection of poems, [*Smart Fish Don't Bite*](https://moonstone-arts-center.square.site/product/ehrhart-w-d-smart-fish-don-t-bite/YD2QGAXXBUFHBNEM4K6HS6AF?cs=true&cst=custom&utm%5Fmedium=email&%5Fhsenc=p2ANqtz-%5FW-lL6cwwW8bsQANmJwm3MsSw-S42Z2xGh0k2oeotYQjMZaBNz9DqAOukdKP95CuNaM19QsZuXdCh2rJglFzD6U6sG4g&%5Fhsmi=380810861&utm%5Fcontent=380810861&utm%5Fsource=hs%5Femail) from Moonstone Arts, and *Getting Shot At: Essays on War, Conflict & Culture Clash,* forthcoming in 2026 from McFarland & Company, Inc. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Wales at Swansea and taught English and history at The Haverford School in Pennsylvania from 2001 to 2019.