All Poems
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The Trifler
© Dorothy Parker
Death's the lover that I'd be taking;
Wild and fickle and fierce is he.
Small's his care if my heart be breaking-
Gay young Death would have none of me.
The Thin Edge
© Dorothy Parker
With you, my heart is quiet here,
And all my thoughts are cool as rain.
I sit and let the shifting year
Go by before the windowpane,
And reach my hand to yours, my dear . . .
I wonder what it's like in Spain.
The Small Hours
© Dorothy Parker
No more my little song comes back;
And now of nights I lay
My head on down, to watch the black
And wait the unfailing gray.
The Second Oldest Story
© Dorothy Parker
Go I must along my ways
Though my heart be ragged,
Dripping bitter through the days,
Festering, and jagged.
The Satin Dress
© Dorothy Parker
Needle, needle, dip and dart,
Thrusting up and down,
Where's the man could ease a heart
Like a satin gown?
The Red Dress
© Dorothy Parker
I always saw, I always said
If I were grown and free,
I'd have a gown of reddest red
As fine as you could see,
The New Love
© Dorothy Parker
If it shine or if it rain,
Little will I care or know.
Days, like drops upon a pane,
Slip, and join, and go.
The Leal
© Dorothy Parker
The friends I made have slipped and strayed,
And who's the one that cares?
A trifling lot and best forgot-
And that's my tale, and theirs.
The Last Question
© Dorothy Parker
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.
The Lady's Reward
© Dorothy Parker
Lady, lady, never start
Conversation toward your heart;
Keep your pretty words serene;
Never murmur what you mean.
The Immortals
© Dorothy Parker
Therefore the mooning world is gratified,
Quoting how prettily we sigh and swear;
And you and I, correctly side by side,
Shall live as lovers when our bones are bare
And though we lie forever enemies,
Shall rank with Abelard and Heloise.
The Homebody
© Dorothy Parker
It may be, when the devil's own time is done,
That I shall hear the dropping of the rain
At midnight, and lie quiet in my bed;
Or stretch and straighten to the yellow sun;
Or face the turning tree, and have no pain;
So shall I learn at last my heart is dead.
The Flaw In Paganism
© Dorothy Parker
Drink and dance and laugh and lie,
Love, the reeling midnight through,
For tomorrow we shall die!
(But, alas, we never do.)
The False Friends
© Dorothy Parker
They laid their hands upon my head,
They stroked my cheek and brow;
And time could heal a hurt, they said,
And time could dim a vow.
The Dramatists
© Dorothy Parker
A string of shiny days we had,
A spotless sky, a yellow sun;
And neither you nor I was sad
When that was through and done.
The Dark Girl's Rhyme
© Dorothy Parker
Who was there had seen us
Wouldn't bid him run?
Heavy lay between us
All our sires had done.
The Danger Of Writing Defiant Verse
© Dorothy Parker
And now I have another lad!
No longer need you tell
How all my nights are slow and sad
For loving you too well.
The Choice
© Dorothy Parker
He'd have given me rolling lands,
Houses of marble, and billowing farms,
Pearls, to trickle between my hands,
Smoldering rubies, to circle my arms.
The Apple Tree
© Dorothy Parker
When first we saw the apple tree
The boughs were dark and straight,
But never grief to give had we,
Though Spring delayed so late.
Sweet Violets
© Dorothy Parker
You are brief and frail and blue-
Little sisters, I am, too.
You are Heaven's masterpieces-
Little loves, the likeness ceases.
