Recurrence

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



We shall have our little day.
Take my hand and travel still
Round and round the little way,
Up and down the little hill.

It is good to love again;
Scan the renovated skies,
Dip and drive the idling pen,
Sweetly tint the paling lies.

Trace the dripping, pierced heart,
Speak the fair, insistent verse,
Vow to God, and slip apart,
Little better, Little worse.

Would we need not know before
How shall end this prettiness;
One of us must love the more,
One of us shall love the less.

Thus it is, and so it goes;
We shall have our day, my dear.
Where, unwilling, dies the rose
Buds the new, another year.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 23, 2023

34 sec read
167

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GDGX HIHI
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 588
Words 116
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

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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