Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SHARAKU DREAMS by JOHN GOULD FLETCHER

First Line: I WILL SCRAWL ON THE WALLS OF THE NIGHT
Last Line: STARTING.
Subject(s): PRINTS, JAPANESE;
I will scrawl on the walls of the night
Faces.

Leering, sneering, scowling, threatening faces;
Weeping, twisting, yelling, howling faces;
Faces fixed in a contortion between a scream and a laugh,
Meaningless faces.

I will cover the walls of night
With faces,
Till you do not know
If these faces are but masks, or you the masks for them.

Faces too grotesque for laughter,
Faces too shattered by pain for tears,
Faces of such ugliness
That the ugliness grows beauty.

They will haunt you morning, evening,
Burning, burning, ever returning.
Their own infamy creating,
Till you strike at life and hate it,
Burn your soul up so in hating.

I will scrawl on the walls of the night
Faces,
Pitiless,
Flaring,
Starting.



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