"I Shall Come Back"
I shall come back without fanfaronadeOf wailing wind and graveyard panoply;But, trembling, slip from cool Eternity--A mild and most bewildered little shade.I shall not make sepulchral midnight raid,But softly come where I had longed to beIn April twilight's unsung melody,And I, not you, shall be the one afraid.
Strange, that from lovely dreamings of the deadI shall come back to you, who hurt me most.You may not feel my hand upon your head,I'll be so new and inexpert a ghost.Perhaps you will not know that I am near,--And that will break my ghostly heart, 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,]
- fanfaronade n.
- A swaggering; vain boasting; ostentation; a bluster. [F. fanfaronnade, fr. Sp. fanfarronada. See Fanfaron.]
- graveyard n.
- A yard or inclosure for the interment of the dead; a cemetery.
- panoply n.
- Defensive armor in general; a full suit of defensive armor.
- inexpert a.
- Destitute of experience or of much experience. [L. inexpertus inexperienced: cf. F. inexpert. See In- not, and Expert.]
- ghost n.
- The spirit; the soul of man. [OE. gast, gost, soul, spirit, AS. gast breath, spirit, soul; akin to OS. g spirit, soul, D. geest, G. geist, and prob. to E. gaze, ghastly.]
- ghostly a.
- Relating to the soul; not carnal or secular; spiritual; as, a ghostly confessor. [OE. gastlich, gostlich, AS. gastlic. See Ghost.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"I Shall Come Back" 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, "I Shall Come Back", in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/i-shall-come-back.html, id L27346.
Form and metre
"I Shall Come Back" is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
See 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 A--AA--A fanfaronadeA · panoply · eternity · shadeA · raidA · be · melody · afraidA
- 2 ABABCC deadA · mostB · headA · ghostB · nearC · dearC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I shall come back without fanfaronade | 8 | ········ |
| Of wailing wind and graveyard panoply; | 10 | ·/˘··/·/˘˘ |
| But, trembling, slip from cool Eternity-- | 11 | ·/˘˘···˘/˘˘ |
| A mild and most bewildered little shade. | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘· |
| I shall not make sepulchral midnight raid, | 10 | ····˘/˘/·· |
| But softly come where I had longed to be | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| In April twilight's unsung melody, | 10 | ·/˘/·˘//˘˘ |
| And I, not you, shall be the one afraid. | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Strange, that from lovely dreamings of the dead | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| I shall come back to you, who hurt me most. | 10 | ·········· |
| You may not feel my hand upon your head, | 10 | ·········· |
| I'll be so new and inexpert a ghost. | 10 | ·········· |
| Perhaps you will not know that I am near,-- | 10 | ˘/········ |
| And that will break my ghostly heart, my dear. | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
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.