Pictures in the Smoke
Oh, gallant was the first love, and glittering and fine;The second love was water, in a clear white cup;The third love was his, and the fourth was mine;And after that, I always get them all mixed up.
About this text
Pictures in the Smoke 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, Pictures in the Smoke, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/pictures-in-the-smoke.html, id L27399.
Form and metre
Pictures in the Smoke is 4 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABAB.
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 fineA · cupB · mineA · upB
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. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, gallant was the first love, and glittering and fine; | 12 | ·/˘·····/˘·· |
| The second love was water, in a clear white cup; | 12 | ·/˘··/˘····· |
| The third love was his, and the fourth was mine; | 10 | ·········· |
| And after that, I always get them all mixed up. | 12 | ·····/······ |
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.