Epitaph
The first time I died, I walked my ways;I followed the file of limping days.
I held me tall, with my head flung up,But I dared not look on the new moon's cup.
I dared not look on the sweet young rain,And between my ribs was a gleaming pain.
The next time I died, they laid me deep.They spoke worn words to hallow my sleep.
They tossed me petals, they wreathed me fern,They weighted me down with a marble urn.
And I lie here warm, and I lie here dry,And watch the worms slip by, slip by.
Words in this poem
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- hallow v. t.
- To make holy; to set apart for holy or religious use; to consecrate; to treat or keep as sacred; to reverence. [OE. halowen, halwien, halgien, AS. halgian, fr. halig holy. See Holy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Epitaph 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, Epitaph, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/epitaph.html, id L27325.
Form and metre
Epitaph is 12 lines in 6 stanzas of 2 lines each. It is in rhyming couplets: heroic couplets. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 74%).
See other poems in heroic couplets, other poems in iambic 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 AA waysA · daysA
- 2 AA upA · cupA
- 3 AA rainA · painA
- 4 AA deepA · sleepA
- 5 AA fernA · urnA
- 6 AA dryA · byA
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 iambic pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The first time I died, I walked my ways; | 9 | ········· |
| I followed the file of limping days. | 9 | ·/˘···/˘· |
| I held me tall, with my head flung up, | 9 | ········· |
| But I dared not look on the new moon's cup. | 10 | ·········· |
| I dared not look on the sweet young rain, | 9 | ········· |
| And between my ribs was a gleaming pain. | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| The next time I died, they laid me deep. | 9 | ········· |
| They spoke worn words to hallow my sleep. | 9 | ·····/˘·· |
| They tossed me petals, they wreathed me fern, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| They weighted me down with a marble urn. | 10 | ·/˘····/˘· |
| And I lie here warm, and I lie here dry, | 10 | ·········· |
| And watch the worms slip by, slip by. | 8 | ········ |
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.