The Veteran
When I was young and bold and strong,Oh, right was right, and wrong was wrong!My plume on high, my flag unfurled,I rode away to right the world."Come out, you dogs, and fight!" said I,And wept there was but once to die.
But I am old; and good and badAre woven in a crazy plaid.I sit and say, "The world is so;And he is wise who lets it go.A battle lost, a battle won--The difference is small, my son."
Inertia rides and riddles me;The which is called Philosophy.
Words in this poem
- rode n.
- Redness; complexion. [See Rud.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Veteran 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 Veteran, in Enough Rope (1926), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #68353, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-enough-rope/the-veteran.html, id L27365.
Form and metre
The Veteran is 14 lines in 3 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is AABBCC, complete in 2 of its 3 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 AABBCC strongA · wrongA · unfurledB · worldB · iC · dieC
- 2 AABBCC badA · plaidA · soB · goB · wonC · sonC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When I was young and bold and strong, | 8 | ········ |
| Oh, right was right, and wrong was wrong! | 8 | ········ |
| My plume on high, my flag unfurled, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| I rode away to right the world. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| "Come out, you dogs, and fight!" said I, | 8 | ········ |
| And wept there was but once to die. | 8 | ········ |
| But I am old; and good and bad | 8 | ········ |
| Are woven in a crazy plaid. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| I sit and say, "The world is so; | 8 | ········ |
| And he is wise who lets it go. | 8 | ········ |
| A battle lost, a battle won-- | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The difference is small, my son." | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| Inertia rides and riddles me; | 8 | ˘/˘··/˘· |
| The which is called Philosophy. | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
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.