The Last Question

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



New love, new love, where are you to lead me?
  All along a narrow way that marks a crooked line.
How are you to slake me, and how are you to feed me?
  With bitter yellow berries, and a sharp new wine.

New love, new love, shall I be forsaken?
  One shall go a-wandering, and one of us must sigh.
Sweet it is to slumber, but how shall we awaken-
  Whose will be the broken heart, when dawn comes by?

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 25, 2023

24 sec read
433

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABAB CDCD
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 400
Words 82
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 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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    "The Last Question" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 29 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/8258/the-last-question>.

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