Neither Bloody nor Bowed
They say of me, and so they should,It's doubtful if I come to good.I see acquaintances and friendsAccumulating dividends,And making enviable namesIn science, art, and parlor games.But I, despite expert advice,Keep doing things I think are nice,And though to good I never come--Inseparable my nose and thumb!
Words in this poem
- enviable a.
- Fitted to excite envy; capable of awakening an ardent desire to posses or to resemble. [From Envy.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Neither Bloody nor Bowed 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, Neither Bloody nor Bowed, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/neither-bloody-nor-bowed.html, id L27405.
Form and metre
Neither Bloody nor Bowed is 10 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 AABBCCDDEE shouldA · goodA · friendsB · dividendsB · namesC · gamesC · adviceD · niceD · comeE · thumbE
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 |
|---|---|---|
| They say of me, and so they should, | 8 | ········ |
| It's doubtful if I come to good. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| I see acquaintances and friends | 8 | ··˘/˘˘·· |
| Accumulating dividends, | 8 | ˘/˘·˘/˘· |
| And making enviable names | 8 | ·/˘/˘˘˘· |
| In science, art, and parlor games. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| But I, despite expert advice, | 8 | ··˘//˘˘/ |
| Keep doing things I think are nice, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And though to good I never come-- | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Inseparable my nose and thumb! | 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.