Indian Summer
In youth, it was a way I hadTo do my best to please,And change, with every passing lad,To suit his theories.
But now I know the things I know,And do the things I do;And if you do not like me so,To hell, my love, with you!
About this text
Indian Summer 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, Indian Summer, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/indian-summer.html, id L27377.
Form and metre
Indian Summer is 8 lines in 2 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
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 hadA · pleaseB · ladA · theoriesB
- 2 ABAB knowA · doB · soA · youB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| In youth, it was a way I had | 8 | ········ |
| To do my best to please, | 6 | ······ |
| And change, with every passing lad, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| To suit his theories. | 5 | ···/˘ |
| But now I know the things I know, | 8 | ········ |
| And do the things I do; | 6 | ······ |
| And if you do not like me so, | 8 | ········ |
| To hell, my love, with you! | 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.