Last week my son brought home a special surprise- a book of poetry by Dorothy Parker. Death and Taxes was first published in 1931; this edition was dated 1939.
The title page.
I was already somewhat familiar with the writings of Dorothy Parker, but this particular book, her third volume of published poetry, was new to me. It's a slim volume, just 62 pages, but a goldmine of her acerbic humor and poignant musings on the human condition.
Dorothy Parker was a brilliant, outspoken woman who led an extraordinary if troubled life; you can read about her on her Wikipedia page, on the Poetry Foundation website, and at the Dorothy Parker Society.
A bookplate inside the front cover.
This of course was the first poem to catch my eye. No lies detected!
The Flaw In Paganism
•••
Drink and dance and laugh and lie,
Love, the reeling midnight through,
For tomorrow we shall die!
(But, alas, we never do.)
This one speaks of the all-too-human yearning for what we cannot have-
Ornithology For Beginners
•••
The bird that feeds from off my palm,
Is sleek, affectionate, and calm,
But double, to me, is worth the thrush
A-flickering in the elder bush.
This poem is from the viewpoint of Clodia, a wealthy socialite of the late Roman Republic, speaking of her former lover the poet Catullus. Who famously wrote about her, referring to her as "Lesbia".
From A Letter From Lesbia
•••
...So, praise the gods, at last he's away!
And let me tend you this advice, my dear:
Take any lover that you will, or may,
Except a poet. All of them are queer.
It's just the same---a quarrel or a kiss
Is but a tune to play upon his pipe.
He's always hymning that or wailing this;
Myself, I much prefer the business type.
That thing he wrote, the time the sparrow died-—
(Oh, most unpleasant---gloomy, tedious words!)
I called it sweet, and made believe I cried;
The stupid fool! I've always hated birds...
A closer look at the bookplate. Rosemary Feeney, I admire your style.
Many of the poems have a distinct note of longing and sadness-
Iseult Of Brittany
•••
So delicate my hands, and long,
They might have been my pride.
And there were those to make them song
Who for their touch had died.
Too frail to cup a heart within,
Too soft to hold the free,
How long these lovely hands have been
A bitterness to me!
After A Spanish Proverb
•••
Oh, mercifullest one of all,
Oh, generous as dear,
None lived so lowly, none so small,
Thou couldst withhold thy tear;
How swift, in pure compassion,
How meek in charity,
To offer friendship to the one
Who begged but love of thee!
Oh, gentle word, and sweetest said!
Oh, tender hand, and first
To hold the warm, delicious bread
To lips burned black of thirst.
Dorothy Parker with fellow Algonquin Round Table members Art Samuels, Charles MacArthur, Harpo Marx, and Alexander Woollcott, circa 1919.
My favorites though are the short, sharp, and bitingly funny "Tombstones In The Starlight". I can't help thinking these are about people she actually knew.
I. The Minor Poet
•••
His little trills and chirpings were his best.
No music like the nightingale's was born
Within his throat; but he, too, laid his breast
Upon a thorn.
II. The Pretty Lady
•••
She hated bleak and wintry things alone.
All that was warm and quick, she loved too well-—
A light, a flame, a heart against her own;
It is forever bitter cold, in Hell.
III. The Very Rich Man
•••
He'd have the best, and that was none too good;
No barrier could hold, before his terms.
He lies below, correct in cypress wood,
And entertains the most exclusive worms.
IV. The Fisherwoman
•••
The man she had was kind and clean
And well enough for every day,
But, oh, dear friends, you should have seen
The one that got away!
V. The Crusader
•••
Arrived in Heaven, when his sands were run,
He seized a quill, and sat him down to tell
The local press that something should be done
About that noisy nuisance, Gabriel.
VI. The Actress
•••
Her name, cut clear upon this marble cross,
Shines, as it shone when she was still on earth;
While tenderly the mild, agreeable moss
Obscures the figures of her date of birth.
Dorothy Parker circa 1932.
Thank you for reading. This is an open thread.
