Incurable
And if my heart be scarred and burned,The safer, I, for all I learned;The calmer, I, to see it trueThat ways of love are never new—The love that sets you daft and dazedIs every love that ever blazed;The happier, I, to fathom this:A kiss is every other kiss.The reckless vow, the lovely name,When Helen walked, were spoke the same;The weighted breast, the grinding woe,When Phaon fled, were ever so.Oh, it is sure as it is sadThat any lad is every lad,And what’s a girl, to dare imploreHer dear be hers forevermore?Though he be tried and he be bold,And swearing death should he be cold,He’ll run the path the others went...But you, my sweet, are different.
Words in this poem
- calmer n.
- One who, or that which, makes calm.
- daft a.
- Stupid; folish; idiotic; also, delirious; insance; as, he has gone daft. [OE. daft, deft, deft, stupid; prob. the same word as E. deft. See Deft.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Incurable 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, Incurable, in Sunset Gun (1928), text of English Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-sunset-gun/incurable.html, id L27419.
Form and metre
Incurable is 20 lines in a single stanza. It is in rhyming couplets: octosyllabic couplets. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFFGGHHIIJJ burnedA · learnedA · trueB · newB · dazedC · blazedC · thisD · kissD · nameE · sameE · woeF · soF · sadG · ladG · imploreH · forevermoreH · boldI · coldI · wentJ · differentJ
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 |
|---|---|---|
| And if my heart be scarred and burned, | 8 | ········ |
| The safer, I, for all I learned; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The calmer, I, to see it true | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| That ways of love are never new— | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The love that sets you daft and dazed | 8 | ········ |
| Is every love that ever blazed; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The happier, I, to fathom this: | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A kiss is every other kiss. | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| The reckless vow, the lovely name, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| When Helen walked, were spoke the same; | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| The weighted breast, the grinding woe, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| When Phaon fled, were ever so. | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Oh, it is sure as it is sad | 8 | ········ |
| That any lad is every lad, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| And what’s a girl, to dare implore | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Her dear be hers forevermore? | 8 | ········ |
| Though he be tried and he be bold, | 8 | ········ |
| And swearing death should he be cold, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| He’ll run the path the others went... | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But you, my sweet, are different. | 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.