Analysis of The Red Dress

Dorothy Parker 1893 (Long Branch) – 1967 (New York City)



I always saw, I always said
If I were grown and free,
I'd have a gown of reddest red
As fine as you could see,

To wear out walking, sleek and slow,
Upon a Summer day,
And there'd be one to see me so
And flip the world away.

And he would be a gallant one,
With stars behind his eyes,
And hair like metal in the sun,
And lips too warm for lies.

I always saw us, gay and good,
High honored in the town.
Now I am grown to womanhood....
I have the silly gown.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH
Poetic Form Traditional rhyme
Quatrain 
Metre 111111 110101 11011101 111111 11110101 010101 01111111 010101 01110101 110111 01110001 011111 1111101 110001 1111110 110101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 447
Words 99
Sentences 6
Stanzas 4
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 16
Letters per line (avg) 21
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 84
Words per stanza (avg) 24
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

30 sec read
618

Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. more…

All Dorothy Parker poems | Dorothy Parker Books

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