The Dramatists
A string of shiny days we had,A spotless sky, a yellow sun;And neither you nor I was sadWhen that was through and done.
But when, one day, a boy comes byAnd pleads me with your happiest vow,"There was a lad I knew--" I'll sigh;"I do not know him now."
And when another girl shall passAnd speak a little name I said,Then you will say "There was a lass--I wonder is she dead."
And each of us will sigh, and startA-talking of a faded year,And lay a hand above a heart,And dry a pretty tear.
Words in this poem
- shiny a.
- Bright; luminous; clear; unclouded.
- 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,]
- lass n.
- A youth woman; a girl; a sweetheart. [OE. lasse; prob. of Celtic origin; cf. W. llodes girl, fem. of llawd lad. (Lad a youth.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Dramatists 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, The Dramatists, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/the-dramatists.html, id L27341.
Form and metre
The Dramatists is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 hadA · sunB · sadA · doneB
- 2 ABAB byA · vowB · sighA · nowB
- 3 ABAB passA · saidB · lassA · deadB
- 4 ABAB startA · yearB · heartA · tearB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| A string of shiny days we had, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| A spotless sky, a yellow sun; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And neither you nor I was sad | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| When that was through and done. | 6 | ······ |
| But when, one day, a boy comes by | 8 | ········ |
| And pleads me with your happiest vow, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| "There was a lad I knew--" I'll sigh; | 8 | ········ |
| "I do not know him now." | 6 | ······ |
| And when another girl shall pass | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| And speak a little name I said, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Then you will say "There was a lass-- | 8 | ········ |
| I wonder is she dead." | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| And each of us will sigh, and start | 8 | ········ |
| A-talking of a faded year, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And lay a hand above a heart, | 8 | ········ |
| And dry a pretty tear. | 6 | ···/˘· |
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.