But Not Forgotten
I think, no matter where you stray,That I shall go with you a way.Though you may wander sweeter lands,You will not soon forget my hands,Nor yet the way I held my head,Nor all the tremulous things I said.You still will see me, small and whiteAnd smiling, in the secret night,And feel my arms about you whenThe day comes fluttering back again.I think, no matter where you be,You’ll hold me in your memoryAnd keep my image, there without me,By telling later loves about me.
Words in this poem
- 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
But Not Forgotten is in the public domain. This text is taken from Sunset Gun: Poems (Boni & Liveright, 1928), English Wikisource; 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, But Not Forgotten, in Sunset Gun (1928), text of English Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-sunset-gun/but-not-forgotten.html, id L27468.
Form and metre
But Not Forgotten is 14 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets, 86% of the lines: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 91%).
See other poems in octosyllabic couplets, 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 AABBCCDDEEF-FF strayA · wayA · landsB · handsB · headC · saidC · whiteD · nightD · whenE · againE · beF · memory · meF · meF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| I think, no matter where you stray, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| That I shall go with you a way. | 8 | ········ |
| Though you may wander sweeter lands, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| You will not soon forget my hands, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| Nor yet the way I held my head, | 8 | ········ |
| Nor all the tremulous things I said. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| You still will see me, small and white | 8 | ········ |
| And smiling, in the secret night, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And feel my arms about you when | 8 | ········ |
| The day comes fluttering back again. | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| I think, no matter where you be, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| You’ll hold me in your memory | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| And keep my image, there without me, | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| By telling later loves about me. | 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.