Interview
The ladies men admire, I've heard,Would shudder at a wicked word.Their candle gives a single light;They'd rather stay at home at night.They do not keep awake till three,Nor read erotic poetry.They never sanction the impure,Nor recognize an overture.They shrink from powders and from paints ...So far, I've had no complaints.
Words in this poem
- admire v. t.
- To regard with wonder or astonishment; to view with surprise; to marvel at. [F. admirer, fr. L. admirari; ad + mirari to wonder, for smirari, akin to Gr. smi, and E. smile.]
- erotic a.
- Of or pertaining to the passion of love; treating of love; amatory. [Gr. érotique. See Eros.]
- overture
- An opening or aperture; a recess; a recess; a chamber. [OF. overture, F. ouverture, fr. OF. ovrir, F. ouvrir. See Overt.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Interview 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, Interview, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/interview.html, id L27402.
Form and metre
Interview is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 60% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, other poems in iambic tetrameter.
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 AABB----CC heardA · wordA · lightB · nightB · three · poetry · impure · overture · paintsC · complaintsC
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 tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| The ladies men admire, I've heard, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| Would shudder at a wicked word. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Their candle gives a single light; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| They'd rather stay at home at night. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| They do not keep awake till three, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Nor read erotic poetry. | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| They never sanction the impure, | 8 | ·/˘/˘·˘/ |
| Nor recognize an overture. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| They shrink from powders and from paints ... | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| So far, I've had no complaints. | 7 | ·····˘/ |
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.