Razors pain you, rivers are damp. Acids stain you, drugs cause cramps. ( )

Reading a rare poetry book because my lovely friend Liz shared The Accursed with me long ago, and it once brought me much comfort. I'm sure there's lots more good stuff in here!

***

Still not finished reading *everything* - poetry is slow going for me - but how I loved what I read. This would be a good one for me to own and spend more time with. ( )

I first discovered her in an episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
Owning the DVDs allowed me to see the bonus material. The Algonquin Round Table was delved into, as well as her participation in it. Playing a word game, she was challenenged to use the word “horticulture” in a sentence. Her immediate response was, “You can bring a whore to culture but you can’t make her think.” That kind of quick witted brilliance made me thirsty for more, and the complete collection of her poems does not disappoint. ( )

There's a section at the end of poems not collected by Parker herself. She knew what she was doing. Otherwise, excellent.

There is a lot to like here. Parker was witty, intelligent, and skilled with words yet avoided using them in a pretentious way. She spoke up for women and mastered the art of the cynical one-liner.

Unfortunately there was a great deal of sadness behind the art; Parker made four suicide attempts while she was in her thirties and her depression is clearly evident in her writing. At times this is playful ("Three be the things I shall have till I die:/Laughter and hope and a sock in the eye.", and at other times it's artistic ("There's little in talking or giving,/There's little in water or wine;/This living, this living, this living/Was never a project of mine."), but her cynicism on life and relationships does get repetitive particularly in her early collections, Enough Rope (1926), Sunset Gun (1928), and Death and Taxes (1931).

In the "Poems Uncollected by Parker" the themes open up a bit. Some examples: The Lady in Black (about the annoying person who invariably sits behind you at plays or movies), The Far-Sighted Muse (about naive optimism), Hymn of Hate (many, but the one on Reformers was great), Song of the Wilderness (about the city girl just wanting to stay home when her guy goes out to be with nature), Paean (supreme happiness for having lost a pound), When We Were Very Sore (supreme displeasure at having been advertised as America's A.A. Milne), and Letter from Dorothy Parker to Ogden Nash (admiration in the form of imitation).

Sometimes ya just want to give her a hug, though undoubtedly if she were around to receive it, her lip would curl and she would deliver a caustic remark. :-)

Here are my favorites:

Somebody's Song
-------------------------
"This is what I vow;
He shall have my heart to keep;
Sweetly will we stir and sleep,
All the years, as now.
Swift the measured sands may run;
Love like this is never done;
He and I are welded one:
This is what I vow.

This is what I pray:
Keep him by me tenderly;
Keep him sweet in pride of me,
Ever and a day;
Keep me from the old distress;
Let me, for our happiness,
Be the one to love the less:
This is what I pray.

This is what I know:
Lover's oaths are thin as rain;
Love's a harbinger of pain -
Would it were not so!
Ever is my heart a-thirst,
Ever is my love accurst;
He is neither last nor first -
This is what I know."

The Veteran
----------------
"When I was young, and bold and strong,
Oh right was right, and wrong was wrong!
My plume on high, my flag unfurled,
I rode away to right the world.
'Come out, you dogs, and fight!' said I,
And wept there was but once to die.

But I am old; and good and bad
Are woven in a crazy plaid.
I sit and say, 'The world is so;
And he is wise who lets it go.
A battle lost, a battle won -
The difference is small, my son.

Inertia rides and riddles me;
The which is called Philosophy."

Oscar Wilde
-----------------
"If, with the literate, I am
impelled to try an epigram,
I never seek to take the credit;
We all assume that Oscar said it."

Excursion Into Assonance
-----------------------------------
"I have trodden level sand
Along a reach of gray -
From dune-top to sea's end,
No breathing thing but me.

I have dropped the heavy latch
Against the rain's tap,
And shivered by the fire, to watch
The dark hours slip.

The desolate beach, the midnight storm -
I dwelt alone with these;
But here, within your bended arm,
Is loneliness."

Penelope
-------------
"In the pathway of the sun,
In the footsteps of the breeze,
Where the world and sky are one,
He shall ride the silver seas,
He shall cut the glittering wave.
I shall sit at home, and rock;
Rise, to heed a neighbor's knock;
Brew my tea, and snip my thread;
Bleach the linen for my bed.
They will call him brave."

General Review of the Sex Situation
------------------------------------------------
Woman wants monogamy;
Man delights in novelty.
Love is woman's moon and sun;
Man has other forms of fun.
Woman lives but in her lord;
Count to ten, and man is bored.
With this the gist and sum of it,
What earthly good can come of it?" ( )