Plea
Secrets, you said, would hold us two apart;You'd have me know of you your least transgressionAnd so the intimate places of your heart,Kneeling, you bared to me, as in confession.Softly you told of loves that went before,--Of clinging arms, of kisses gladly given;Luxuriously clean of heart once more,You rose up, then, and stood before me, shriven.
When this, my day of happiness, is through,And love, that bloomed so fair, turns brown and brittle,There is a thing that I shall ask of you--I, who have given so much, and asked so little.Some day, when there's another in my stead;Again you'll feel the need of absolution,And you will go to her, and bow your head,And offer her your past, as contribution.
When with your list of loves you overcome her,For Heaven's sake, keep this one secret from her!
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- gladly adv.
- Preferably; by choice. [From Glad, a.]
- 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,]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Plea 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, Plea, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/plea.html, id L27357.
Form and metre
Plea is 18 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABABCDCD, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 88%).
See other poems in iambic pentameter.
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 ABABCDCD apartA · transgressionB · heartA · confessionB · beforeC · givenD · moreC · shrivenD
- 2 ABABCDCD throughA · brittleB · youA · littleB · steadC · absolutionD · headC · contributionD
- 3 AA herA · herA
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 pentameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Secrets, you said, would hold us two apart; | 10 | /˘······˘/ |
| You'd have me know of you your least transgression | 11 | ········˘/˘ |
| And so the intimate places of your heart, | 11 | ···/˘˘/˘··· |
| Kneeling, you bared to me, as in confession. | 11 | /˘······˘/˘ |
| Softly you told of loves that went before,-- | 10 | /˘········ |
| Of clinging arms, of kisses gladly given; | 11 | ·/˘··/˘/˘/˘ |
| Luxuriously clean of heart once more, | 9 | ········· |
| You rose up, then, and stood before me, shriven. | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| When this, my day of happiness, is through, | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| And love, that bloomed so fair, turns brown and brittle, | 11 | ·········/˘ |
| There is a thing that I shall ask of you-- | 10 | ·········· |
| I, who have given so much, and asked so little. | 12 | ···/˘·····/˘ |
| Some day, when there's another in my stead; | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Again you'll feel the need of absolution, | 11 | ˘/······˘/˘ |
| And you will go to her, and bow your head, | 10 | ·········· |
| And offer her your past, as contribution. | 11 | ·/˘·····˘/˘ |
| When with your list of loves you overcome her, | 11 | ·······/˘·· |
| For Heaven's sake, keep this one secret from her! | 11 | ·/˘····/˘·· |
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.