Dilemma
If I were mild and I were sweet,And laid my heart before your feet,And took my dearest thoughts to you,And hailed your easy lies as true;Were I to murmur “Yes,” and then“How true, my dear,” and “Yes,” again,And wear my eyes discreetly down,And tremble whitely at your frown,And keep my words unquestioning—My love, you’d run like anything!
Should I be frail, and I be mad,And share my heart with every lad,But beat my head against the floorWhat times you wandered past my door;Were I to doubt, and I to sneer,And shriek “Farewell!” and still be here,And break your joy, and quench your trust—I should not see you for the dust!
Words in this poem
- whitely a.
- Like, or coming near to, white.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Dilemma 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, Dilemma, in Sunset Gun (1928), text of English Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-sunset-gun/dilemma.html, id L27462.
Form and metre
Dilemma is 18 lines in 2 stanzas. 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 AABBCCDDEE sweetA · feetA · youB · trueB · thenC · againC · downD · frownD · unquestioningE · anythingE
- 2 AABBCCDD madA · ladA · floorB · doorB · sneerC · hereC · trustD · dustD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| If I were mild and I were sweet, | 8 | ········ |
| And laid my heart before your feet, | 8 | ········ |
| And took my dearest thoughts to you, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| And hailed your easy lies as true; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Were I to murmur “Yes,” and then | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| “How true, my dear,” and “Yes,” again, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| And wear my eyes discreetly down, | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| And tremble whitely at your frown, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And keep my words unquestioning— | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| My love, you’d run like anything! | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Should I be frail, and I be mad, | 8 | ········ |
| And share my heart with every lad, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But beat my head against the floor | 8 | ········ |
| What times you wandered past my door; | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Were I to doubt, and I to sneer, | 8 | ········ |
| And shriek “Farewell!” and still be here, | 8 | ···/···· |
| And break your joy, and quench your trust— | 8 | ········ |
| I should not see you for the dust! | 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.