The Poetry of Dorothy Parker

The Poetry of Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker is one of the cleverest poets of the 20th Century. She has a playfulness with words that is tinged with bitterness, as in "Theory":

Into love and out again,
	Thus I went and thus I go.
Spare your voice, and hold your pen:
	Well and bitterly I know
All the songs were ever sung,
	All the words were ever said;
Could it be, when I was young,
	Someone dropped me on my head?

Dorothy Parker's works often express an anger at conventions, and a sly delight in setting them on their head, as in "Interview"

The ladies men admire, I've heard,
Would shudder at a wicked word.
Their candle gives a single light;
They'd rather stay at home at night.
They do not keep awake till three,
Nor read erotic poetry.
They never sanction the impure,
Nor recognize an overture.
They shrink from powders and from paints.
So far, I have had no complaints.

This same anger of the expectations made of women is echoed in this excerpt from "Song of Perfect Propriety"--

I'd like to straddle gory decks,
  And dig in laden sands,
And know the feel of throbbing necks
  Between my knotted hands.
Oh, I should like to strut and curse
  Among my blackguard crew....
But I am writing little verse,
  As little ladies do.

"Song" uses a remarkably strong, sensual language, one that freely reflects language usually reserved for erotica, and that contradicts the "propriety" of the stanza's final line. Dorothy Parker finds her strength in the irony of situations and the almost bawdy language she employs.

Fulfillment

For this my mother wrapped me warm,
And called me home against the storm,
And coaxed my infant nights to quiet,
And gave me roughage in my diet,
And tucked me in my bed at eight,
And clipped my hair, and marked my weight,
And watched me as I sat and stood:
That I might grow to womanhood
To hear a whistle and drop my wits
And break my heart to clattering bits.

The final two lines of "Fulfillment" echo the theme of helplessness that are found in much of her work. There is anger there, but it is in a different form than post-sexual-revolution forums usually express. It has resignation where a modern reader would expect fury. In that sense, she is very much an author of her age.

The Portable Dorothy Parker is available online from Amazon.com. The movie "Mrs. Parker And The Vicious Circle" is available on video, and provides insights into how Dorothy Parker's life influenced her work.

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Back To the December 1997 Blender Digest