Braggart
The days will rally, wreathingTheir crazy tarantelle;And you must go on breathing,But I'll be safe in hell.
Like January weather,The years will bite and smart,And pull your bones togetherTo wrap your chattering heart.
The pretty stuff you're made ofWill crack and crease and dry.The thing you are afraid ofWill look from every eye.
You will go faltering afterThe bright, imperious line,And split your throat on laughter,And burn your eyes with brine.
You will be frail and mustyWith peering, furtive head,Whilst I am young and lustyAmong the roaring dead.
Words in this poem
- rally v. t.
- To collect, and reduce to order, as troops dispersed or thrown into confusion; to gather again; to reunite. [OF. ralier, F. rallier, fr. L. pref. re- + ad + ligare to bind. See Ra-, and 1st Ally.]
- january n.
- The first month of the year, containing thirty-one days. [L. Januarius, fr. Janus an old Latin deity, the god of the sun and the year, to whom the month of January was sacred; cf. janua a door, Skr. ya to go.]
- chattering n.
- The act or habit of talking idly or rapidly, or of making inarticulate sounds; the sounds so made; noise made by the collision of the teeth; chatter.
- faltering a.
- Hesitating; trembling.
- imperious a.
- Commanding; ascendant; imperial; lordly; majestic. [L. imperiosus: cf. F. impérieux. See Imperial.]
- furtive a.
- Stolen; obtained or characterized by stealth; sly; secret; stealthy; as, a furtive look. Prior. [L. furtivus, fr. furtum theft, fr. fur thief, akin to ferre to bear: cf. F. furtif. See Fertile.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Braggart is in the public domain. This text is taken from Enough Rope: Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #68353; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Dorothy Parker, Braggart, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/braggart.html, id L27331.
Form and metre
Braggart is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in common measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB wreathingA · tarantelleB · breathingA · hellB
- 2 ABAB weatherA · smartB · togetherA · heartB
- 3 ABAB ofA · dryB · ofA · eyeB
- 4 ABAB afterA · lineB · laughterA · brineB
- 5 ABAB mustyA · headB · lustyA · deadB
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The days will rally, wreathing | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Their crazy tarantelle; | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And you must go on breathing, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| But I'll be safe in hell. | 6 | ······ |
| Like January weather, | 7 | ·/˘·˘/˘ |
| The years will bite and smart, | 6 | ······ |
| And pull your bones together | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| To wrap your chattering heart. | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| The pretty stuff you're made of | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| Will crack and crease and dry. | 6 | ······ |
| The thing you are afraid of | 7 | ····˘/· |
| Will look from every eye. | 7 | ···/˘˘· |
| You will go faltering after | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| The bright, imperious line, | 7 | ··˘/˘˘· |
| And split your throat on laughter, | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| And burn your eyes with brine. | 6 | ······ |
| You will be frail and musty | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| With peering, furtive head, | 6 | ·/˘/˘· |
| Whilst I am young and lusty | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Among the roaring dead. | 6 | ···/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.