Pierrot, the pale clown of moonlit pantomime, is fed up. He has been turned into a delicate excuse for other people’s physical desires—an “airy apology” for their flesh. He has had to twist his speech into fake carelessness and perform a lazy insolence under the moon while their timid, repressed lives lean on him. Now he refuses. He’s done being a “grimacing marionnette” for men who cannot face their own fears. He tells them to find another dancing-teacher. He plans to leave and tear his black-and-white costume to shreds in a valley where bare bodies and real colors don’t need an artificial night to feel brave. The mood is defiant and theatrical but also weary—an outburst against being used as a pretty, safe symbol. It feels like an artist or performer throwing off an audience’s need to keep passion at a comfortable distance.
Pierrot Objects — Summary
They have made me an airy apology For the crude insistence of their flesh! They have made me twist my tongue Into fickle nonchalance! With a languid impudence I have tarried underneath the moon, While the haggard reticence Of their lives forgot itself within me! Well, I am rebelling At the men who make me Their grimacing marionnette! Let them find another dancing-teacher For their dull, unruffled fears. I am off to tear my black and white Into shreds, within a valley Where nakedness and colours do not need An artificial night to make them brave!