The Counsellor
I met a man, the other day—A kindly man, and serious—Who viewed me in a thoughtful way,And spoke me so, and spoke me thus:
“Oh, dallying’s a sad mistake;’Tis craven to survey the morrow!Go give your heart, and if it break—A wise companion is Sorrow.
“Oh, live, my child, nor keep your soulTo crowd your coffin when you’re dead.”I asked his work; he dealt in coal,And shipped it up the Tyne, he said.
Words in this poem
- 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.]
- craven v. t.
- To make recreant, weak, spiritless, or cowardly.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Counsellor 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, The Counsellor, in Sunset Gun (1928), text of English Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-sunset-gun/the-counsellor.html, id L27411.
Form and metre
The Counsellor is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
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 ABAB dayA · seriousB · wayA · thusB
- 2 ABAB mistakeA · morrowB · breakA · sorrowB
- 3 ABAB soulA · deadB · coalA · saidB
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 met a man, the other day— | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A kindly man, and serious— | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| Who viewed me in a thoughtful way, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And spoke me so, and spoke me thus: | 8 | ········ |
| “Oh, dallying’s a sad mistake; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| ’Tis craven to survey the morrow! | 9 | ·/˘·˘/·/˘ |
| Go give your heart, and if it break— | 8 | ········ |
| A wise companion is Sorrow. | 8 | ··˘/˘·/˘ |
| “Oh, live, my child, nor keep your soul | 8 | ········ |
| To crowd your coffin when you’re dead.” | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| I asked his work; he dealt in coal, | 8 | ········ |
| And shipped it up the Tyne, he said. | 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.