Portrait of the Artist
Oh, lead me to a quiet cellWhere never footfall rankles,And bar the window passing well,And gyve my wrists and ankles.
Oh, wrap my eyes with linen fair,With hempen cord go bind me,And, of your mercy, leave me there,Nor tell them where to find me.
Oh, lock the portal as you go,And see its bolts be double....Come back in half an hour or so,And I will be in trouble.
Words in this poem
- footfall n.
- A setting down of the foot; a footstep; the sound of a footstep.
- gyve n.
- A shackle; especially, one to confine the legs; a fetter. [Of Celtic origin; cf. W. gefyn, Ir. geibbionn, Gael. geimheal.]
- hempen a.
- Made of hemp; as, a hempen cord.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Portrait of the Artist 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, Portrait of the Artist, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/portrait-of-the-artist.html, id L27350.
Form and metre
Portrait of the Artist is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See 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 ABAB cellA · ranklesB · wellA · anklesB
- 2 ABAB fairA · meB · thereA · meB
- 3 ABAB goA · doubleB · soA · troubleB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, lead me to a quiet cell | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Where never footfall rankles, | 7 | ·/˘/·/˘ |
| And bar the window passing well, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And gyve my wrists and ankles. | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Oh, wrap my eyes with linen fair, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| With hempen cord go bind me, | 7 | ·/˘···· |
| And, of your mercy, leave me there, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Nor tell them where to find me. | 7 | ······· |
| Oh, lock the portal as you go, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And see its bolts be double.... | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| Come back in half an hour or so, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And I will be in trouble. | 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.