Analysis of Guinevere at Her Fireside

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



A nobler king had never breath-
I say it now, and said it then.
Who weds with such is wed till death
And wedded stays in Heaven. Amen.

(And oh, the shirts of linen-lawn,
And all the armor, tagged and tied,
And church on Sundays, dusk and dawn.
And bed a thing to kneel beside!)

The bravest one stood tall above
The rest, and watched me as a light.
I heard and heard them talk of love;
I'd naught to do but think, at night.

The bravest man has littlest brains;
That chalky fool from Astolat
With all her dying and her pains!-
Thank God, I helped him over that.

I found him not unfair to see-
I like a man with peppered hair!
And thus it came about. Ah, me,
Tristram was busied otherwhere....

A nobler king had never breath-
I say it now, and said it then.
Who weds with such is wed till death
And wedded stays in Heaven. Amen.


Scheme ABAB cdcd efef gdgx hihi ABAB
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 01011101 11110111 11111111 010101001 01011101 01010101 0111101 01011101 01011101 01011101 11011111 11111111 010111001 11111 11010001 11111101 11110111 11011101 01110111 101101 01011101 11110111 11111111 010101001
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 810
Words 167
Sentences 16
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 24
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 104
Words per stanza (avg) 27
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 02, 2023

50 sec read
122

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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