Pour Prendre Congé
I’m sick of embarking in doriesUpon an emotional sea.I’m wearied of playing Dolores(A rôle never written for me).
I’ll never again like a cub lickMy wounds while I squeal at the hurt.No more I’ll go walking in public,My heart hanging out of my shirt.
I’m tired of entwining me garlandsOf weather-worn hemlock and bay.I’m over my longing for far lands—I wouldn’t give that for Cathay.
I’m through with performing the balletOf love unrequited and told.Euterpe, I tender you vale;Good-bye, and take care of that cold.
I’m done with this burning and givingAnd reeling the rhymes of my woes.And how I’ll be making my living,The Lord in His mystery knows.
Words in this poem
- squeal v. i.
- To cry with a sharp, shrill, prolonged sound, as certain animals do, indicating want, displeasure, or pain. [Of Scand. origin; cf. Sw. sqväla, Norw. skvella. Cf. Squeak, Squall.]
- ballet n.
- An artistic dance performed as a theatrical entertainment, or an interlude, by a number of persons, usually women. Sometimes, a scene accompanied by pantomime and dancing. [F., a dim. of bal dance. See 2d Ball, n.]
- euterpe
- The Muse who presided over music.
- vale n.
- A tract of low ground, or of land between hills; a valley. [OE. val, F. val, L. vallis; perhaps akin to Gr. Avalanche, Vail to lower, Valley.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Pour Prendre Congé 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, Pour Prendre Congé, in Sunset Gun (1928), text of English Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-sunset-gun/pour-prendre-cong.html, id L27470.
Form and metre
Pour Prendre Congé is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 4 of its 5 stanzas. The metre is anapaestic trimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 86%).
See other poems in anapaestic trimeter.
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 ABAB doriesA · seaB · doloresA · meB
- 2 ABAB lickA · hurtB · publicA · shirtB
- 3 ABAB garlandsA · bayB · landsA · cathayB
- 4 -A-A ballet · toldA · vale · coldA
- 5 ABAB givingA · woesB · livingA · knowsB
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 anapaestic trimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| I’m sick of embarking in dories | 9 | ···˘/˘·/˘ |
| Upon an emotional sea. | 8 | ···˘/˘˘· |
| I’m wearied of playing Dolores | 9 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| (A rôle never written for me). | 8 | ···//˘·· |
| I’ll never again like a cub lick | 8 | ·/˘/···· |
| My wounds while I squeal at the hurt. | 8 | ········ |
| No more I’ll go walking in public, | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| My heart hanging out of my shirt. | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| I’m tired of entwining me garlands | 9 | ·/·˘/˘·/˘ |
| Of weather-worn hemlock and bay. | 8 | ·/˘·/··· |
| I’m over my longing for far lands— | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I wouldn’t give that for Cathay. | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| I’m through with performing the ballet | 9 | ···˘/˘·˘/ |
| Of love unrequited and told. | 8 | ···˘/˘·· |
| Euterpe, I tender you vale; | 8 | ˘/˘·/˘·· |
| Good-bye, and take care of that cold. | 8 | ········ |
| I’m done with this burning and giving | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| And reeling the rhymes of my woes. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And how I’ll be making my living, | 9 | ····/˘·/˘ |
| The Lord in His mystery knows. | 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.