Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

GARGOYLE by CARL SANDBURG

Poet Analysis

First Line: I SAW A MOUTH JEERING. A SMILE OF MELTED RED IRON RAN OVER IT
Last Line: FIST IS POUNDING AND POUNDING, AND THE MOUTH ANSWERING.
I SAW a mouth jeering. A smile of melted red iron ran over it. Its
laugh was full of nails rattling. It was a child's dream of a mouth.
A fist hit the mouth: knuckles of gun-metal driven by an electric
wrist and shoulder. It was a child's dream of an arm.
The fist hit the mouth over and over, again and again. The mouth bled
melted iron, and laughed its laughter of nails rattling.
And I saw the more the fist pounded the more the mouth laughed. The
fist is pounding and pounding, and the mouth answering.



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