It may be a bit odd, possibly a shock to the system, to those who are only familiar with Dorothy Parker’s street smart and sassy urban poetry and prose, to read her more pastoral work.
But, lovers of the great American lady of poison pen letters, have little to fear; for even her strolls through the countryside, in and out of the weather, are selectively planted with literary land mines, sure to delight and amuse her legions of fans.
Midnight
All the stars and the hills and the leaves and the light from the stars and the moon above, all blend into one blurred and dull image compared to Miss Parker’s self-proclaimed and distinct lines of definition; particularly, identifying her heart:
There is no edged thing in all this night,
Save in my breast.
Midnight is a very short poem, and a nice succinct example of Dorothy Parker’s brilliant bite.
Rainy Night
The rainy night brings out the wickedness in Miss Parker, as she bears witness to a resurrection of past indiscretions and misdeeds:
Ghosts of all my lovely sins...
Who attend too well my pillow,
Gay the wanton rain begins;
Awakened and alerted to the coming weather, Miss Parker slyly insinuates a self reckoning may be in the offing:
I am sister to the rain;
Fey and sudden and unholy,
Petulant at the windowpane,
In a moment of uncharacteristic trembling, she confesses to a self-conscious desire to have the rain wash away the graveyard flowers, so that she might be reborn in Spring. Claiming her will to forward movement may be stifled by her innate darkness of spirit, aided by the heavy weather. But, come Spring, when all things are anew:
Hear me now, nor let me rot
Wistful still, and still aspiring.
It becomes clear in reading Dorothy Parker’s poetry, in contrast to her other writings, she succumbs to a certain infatuation with purity; though she never loses completely the hard edge her readers love and admire the most.
Sonnet On An Alpine Night
Parker’s sinewy lyric ingeniously weaves a bitterness around an otherwise sweet poem about one woman’s encounter with majestic beauty; tied tragically to the will and whim of man.
Thus to face Beauty have I traveled far,
But now, as if around my heart were run
Hard, lacing fingers, so I stand undone.
To read Sonnet On An Alpine Night, Rainy Night, and Midnight in their entirety, as well as other Dorothy Parker poems, visit FamousPoetsandPoems.Com
Also, read further Dorothy Parker reviews: Tombstones in the Starlight and Four Poems on Death
Dorothy Parker Quote
For those who absolutely must have a taste of the achingly funny Dorothy Parker so beloved, a quote:
Ducking for apples...change one letter and it's the story of my life. -Dorothy Parker
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