The Immortals
If you should sail for Trebizond, or die,Or cry another name in your first sleep,Or see me board a train, and fail to sigh,Appropriately, I'd clutch my breast and weep.And you, if I should wander through the door,Or sin, or seek a nunnery, or saveMy lips and give my cheek, would tread the floorAnd aptly mention poison and the grave.
Therefore the mooning world is gratified,Quoting how prettily we sigh and swear;And you and I, correctly side by side,Shall live as lovers when our bones are bare;And though we lie forever enemies,Shall rank with Abélard and Héloïse.
Words in this poem
- appropriately adv.
- In an appropriate or proper manner; fitly; properly.
- nunnery n.
- A house in which nuns reside; a cloister or convent in which women reside for life, under religious vows. See Cloister, and Convent. [OE. nonnerie, OF. nonerie, F. nonnerie, fr. nonne nun, L. nonna. See Nun.]
- aptly adv.
- In an apt or suitable manner; fitly; properly; pertinently; appropriately; readily.
- gratified a.
- Pleased; indulged according to desire.
- prettily adv.
- In a pretty manner.
- 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
The Immortals 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 Immortals, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/the-immortals.html, id L27348.
Form and metre
The Immortals is 14 lines in 2 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 dieA · sleepB · sighA · weepB · doorC · saveD · floorC · graveD
- 2 ABAB-- gratifiedA · swearB · sideA · bareB · enemies · héloïse
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If you should sail for Trebizond, or die, | 10 | ·········· |
| Or cry another name in your first sleep, | 10 | ··˘/˘····· |
| Or see me board a train, and fail to sigh, | 10 | ·········· |
| Appropriately, I'd clutch my breast and weep. | 10 | ˘/˘˘······ |
| And you, if I should wander through the door, | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| Or sin, or seek a nunnery, or save | 10 | ·····/˘˘·· |
| My lips and give my cheek, would tread the floor | 10 | ·········· |
| And aptly mention poison and the grave. | 10 | ·/˘/˘/˘··· |
| Therefore the mooning world is gratified, | 10 | ···/˘··/˘· |
| Quoting how prettily we sigh and swear; | 10 | /˘·/˘˘···· |
| And you and I, correctly side by side, | 10 | ····˘/˘··· |
| Shall live as lovers when our bones are bare; | 10 | ···/˘·/··· |
| And though we lie forever enemies, | 10 | ····˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Shall rank with Abélard and Héloïse. | 9 | ········· |
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.