Convalescent
How shall I wail, that wasn't meant for weeping?Love has run and left me, oh, what then?Dream, then, I must, who never can be sleeping;What if I should meet Love, once again?
What if I met him, walking on the highway?Let him see how lightly I should care.He'd travel his way, I would follow my way;Hum a little song, and pass him there.
What if at night, beneath a sky of ashes,He should seek my doorstep, pale with need?There could he lie, and dry would be my lashes;Let him stop his noise, and let me read.
Oh, but I'm gay, that's better off without him;Would he'd come and see me, laughing here.Lord! Don't I know I'd have my arms about him,Crying to him, "Oh, come in, my dear!"
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- doorstep n.
- The stone or plank forming a step before an outer door.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Convalescent 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, Convalescent, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/convalescent.html, id L27323.
Form and metre
Convalescent is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See other poems in trochaic pentameter.
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 weepingA · thenB · sleepingA · againB
- 2 ABAB highwayA · careB · wayA · thereB
- 3 ABAB ashesA · needB · lashesA · readB
- 4 ABAB himA · hereB · himA · dearB
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 trochaic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| How shall I wail, that wasn't meant for weeping? | 11 | ·····/˘··/˘ |
| Love has run and left me, oh, what then? | 9 | ········· |
| Dream, then, I must, who never can be sleeping; | 10 | ·····/··/˘ |
| What if I should meet Love, once again? | 9 | ·······˘/ |
| What if I met him, walking on the highway? | 11 | ·····/˘··/· |
| Let him see how lightly I should care. | 9 | ····/˘··· |
| He'd travel his way, I would follow my way; | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
| Hum a little song, and pass him there. | 9 | ··/˘····· |
| What if at night, beneath a sky of ashes, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| He should seek my doorstep, pale with need? | 9 | ····/···· |
| There could he lie, and dry would be my lashes; | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| Let him stop his noise, and let me read. | 9 | ········· |
| Oh, but I'm gay, that's better off without him; | 11 | ·····/˘···· |
| Would he'd come and see me, laughing here. | 9 | ······/˘· |
| Lord! Don't I know I'd have my arms about him, | 11 | ··········· |
| Crying to him, "Oh, come in, my dear!" | 9 | /˘······· |
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.