Fair Weather
This level reach of blue is not my sea;Here are sweet waters, pretty in the sun,Whose quiet ripples meet obedientlyA marked and measured line, one after one.This is no sea of mine, that humbly lavesUntroubled sands, spread glittering and warm.I have a need of wilder, crueler waves;They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm.
So let a love beat over me again,Loosing its million desperate breakers wide;Sudden and terrible to rise and wane;Roaring the heavens apart; a reckless tideThat casts upon the heart, as it recedes,Splinters and spars and dripping, salty weeds.
Words in this poem
- obediently adv.
- In an obedient manner; with obedience.
- humbly adv.
- With humility; lowly.
- sicken v. t.
- To make sick; to disease.
- desperate a.
- Without hope; given to despair; hopeless. [L. desperatus, p. p. of desperare. See Despair, and cf. Desperado.]
- dripping n.
- A falling in drops, or the sound so made.
- salty a.
- Somewhat salt; saltish.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Fair Weather 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, Fair Weather, in Sunset Gun (1928), text of English Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-sunset-gun/fair-weather.html, id L27450.
Form and metre
Fair Weather is 14 lines in 2 stanzas. The metre is iambic pentameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
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 -A-ABCBC sea · sunA · obediently · oneA · lavesB · warmC · wavesB · stormC
- 2 ABABCC againA · wideB · waneA · tideB · recedesC · weedsC
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 |
|---|---|---|
| This level reach of blue is not my sea; | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| Here are sweet waters, pretty in the sun, | 10 | ···/˘/˘··· |
| Whose quiet ripples meet obediently | 11 | ·/˘/˘·˘/˘˘˘ |
| A marked and measured line, one after one. | 10 | ···/˘····· |
| This is no sea of mine, that humbly laves | 10 | ·······/˘· |
| Untroubled sands, spread glittering and warm. | 10 | ˘/˘··/˘˘·· |
| I have a need of wilder, crueler waves; | 10 | ·····/˘··· |
| They sicken of the calm, who knew the storm. | 10 | ·/˘······· |
| So let a love beat over me again, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Loosing its million desperate breakers wide; | 10 | /˘·/˘/˘/˘· |
| Sudden and terrible to rise and wane; | 10 | /˘·/˘˘···· |
| Roaring the heavens apart; a reckless tide | 11 | /˘·/˘˘/·/˘· |
| That casts upon the heart, as it recedes, | 10 | ········˘/ |
| Splinters and spars and dripping, salty weeds. | 10 | /˘···/˘/˘· |
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.