# "should have sent a poet" - Origins? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 23, 2003, 8:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-have-sent-a-poet-origins/209072 "2003-10-23T08:55:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-have-sent-a-poet-origins/209072/21 "2012-07-16T18:54:45Z")
Buzz Aldrin, in his memoir, also expressed the wish that a poet, or someone with a creative background had been sent to the moon; vs the scientific/concrete minded test pilots like himself. FWIW - I think he did pretty well with the phrase “Magnificent desolation” (a phrase he spoke to to Mission Control and the title of the aforementioned memoir ) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-have-sent-a-poet-origins/209072/22 "2012-07-16T20:01:23Z")
> [@Politzania](#): > > I think he did pretty well with the phrase “Magnificent desolation” (a phrase he spoke to to Mission Control Not merely a phrase, but I believe it was his first words upon standing on the surface of the moon. ---
**Author:** ![Nozz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71c47a/32.png) [@Nozz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nozz)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2018, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-have-sent-a-poet-origins/209072/23 "2018-02-12T16:54:24Z")
An unattributed claim says that “Sergei Korolev, chief designer and scientist behind the whole Soviet space adventure, once remarked, they ‘should have sent a poet not a pilot’.” — [http://justadandak.com/we-should-have-sent-a-poet-not-a-pilot/](http://justadandak.com/we-should-have-sent-a-poet-not-a-pilot/) Korolev died in 1966. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2018, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-have-sent-a-poet-origins/209072/24 "2018-02-12T17:36:51Z")
Please note that this thread began in 2003. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2018, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-have-sent-a-poet-origins/209072/25 "2018-02-13T02:34:26Z")
The closest lines in the short story “Disappearing Act” are these: You need a poet . . . an artist who understands the creation of dreams. Send a poet into Ward T. A poet is half doing it anyway. Send a poet to Ward T. He waited for them to find a poet, not understanding the endless delay, the fruitless search ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2022, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-have-sent-a-poet-origins/209072/26 "2022-04-21T15:17:41Z")
Bumped. I’m now reading Robert Harris’s 2005 historical novel _Pompeii_, and the Roman admiral and naturalist Pliny the Elder, struggling to describe the awful majesty of the eruption of Mount Vesuvius as he watches from a distance, says, “They should have sent a poet.” A little Googling suggests he is not recorded as having said that at the time. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-have-sent-a-poet-origins/209072.md?page=1)