Analysis of Story of Mrs. W-

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



My garden blossoms pink and white,
A place of decorous murmuring,
Where I am safe from August night
And cannot feel the knife of Spring.

And I may walk the pretty place
Before the curtsying hollyhocks
And laundered daisies, round of face-
Good little girls, in party frocks.

My trees are amiably arrayed
In pattern on the dappled sky,
And I may sit in filtered shade
And watch the tidy years go by.

And I may amble pleasantly
And hear my neighbors list their bones
And click my tongue in sympathy,
And count the cracks in paving-stones.

My door is grave in oaken strength,
The cool of linen calms my bed,
And there at night I stretch my length
And envy no one but the dead.


Scheme ABAB CDCD EFEF GHGH IJIJ
Poetic Form Traditional rhyme
Quatrain 
Metre 11010101 011100100 11111101 01010111 01110101 010110 01010111 11010101 111100001 0101011 01110101 01010111 01110100 01110111 01110100 01010101 1111011 01110111 01111111 01011101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 662
Words 128
Sentences 6
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 107
Words per stanza (avg) 25
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 07, 2023

38 sec read
87

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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