Paths
I shall tread, another year,Ways I walked with Grief,Past the dry, ungarnered earAnd the brittle leaf.
I shall stand, a year apart,Wondering, and shy,Thinking, "Here she broke her heart;Here she pled to die."
I shall hear the pheasants call,And the raucous geese;Down these ways, another Fall,I shall walk with Peace.
But the pretty path I trodHand-in-hand with Love,--Underfoot, the nascent sod,Brave young boughs above,
And the stripes of ribbon grassBy the curling way,--I shall never dare to passTo my dying day.
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,]
- broke v. i.
- To transact business for another. Brome. [See Broker, and cf. Brook.]
- raucous a.
- Hoarse; harsh; rough; as, a raucous, thick tone. [L. raucus.]
- underfoot adv.
- Under the feet; underneath; below. See Under foot, under Foot, n.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Paths 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, Paths, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/paths.html, id L27334.
Form and metre
Paths is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABAB yearA · griefB · earA · leafB
- 2 ABAB apartA · shyB · heartA · dieB
- 3 ABAB callA · geeseB · fallA · peaceB
- 4 ABAB trodA · loveB · sodA · aboveB
- 5 ABAB grassA · wayB · passA · dayB
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I shall tread, another year, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| Ways I walked with Grief, | 5 | ····· |
| Past the dry, ungarnered ear | 7 | ······· |
| And the brittle leaf. | 5 | ··/˘· |
| I shall stand, a year apart, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Wondering, and shy, | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| Thinking, "Here she broke her heart; | 7 | /˘····· |
| Here she pled to die." | 5 | ····· |
| I shall hear the pheasants call, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| And the raucous geese; | 5 | ··/˘· |
| Down these ways, another Fall, | 7 | ···˘/˘· |
| I shall walk with Peace. | 5 | ····· |
| But the pretty path I trod | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Hand-in-hand with Love,-- | 5 | ····· |
| Underfoot, the nascent sod, | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Brave young boughs above, | 5 | ····· |
| And the stripes of ribbon grass | 7 | ····/˘· |
| By the curling way,-- | 5 | ··/˘· |
| I shall never dare to pass | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| To my dying day. | 5 | ··/˘· |
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.