To A Much Too Unfortunate Lady

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



He will love you presently
If you be the way you be.
Send your heart a-skittering.
He will stoop, and lift the thing.
Be your dreams as thread, to tease
Into patterns he shall please.
Let him see your passion is
Ever tenderer than his....
Go and bless your star above,
Thus are you, and thus is Love.

He will leave you white with woe,
If you go the way you go.
If your dreams were thread to weave
He will pluck them from his sleeve.
If your heart had come to rest,
He will flick it from his breast.
Tender though the love he bore,
You had loved a little more....
Lady, go and curse your star,
Thus Love is, and thus you are.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 20, 2023

38 sec read
87

Quick analysis:

Scheme AABBCCDDEE XBFFGGHHII
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 613
Words 127
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 10, 10

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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