The Searched Soul
When I consider, pro and con,What things my love is built upon—A curly mouth; a sinewed wrist;A questioning brow; a pretty twistOf words as old and tried as sin;A pointed ear; a cloven chin;Long, tapered limbs; and slanted eyesNot cold nor kind nor darkly wise—When so I ponder, here apart,What shallow boons suffice my heart,What dust-bound trivia capture me,I marvel at my normalcy.
Words in this poem
- sinewed a.
- Furnished with sinews; as, a strong-sinewed youth.
- suffice v. i.
- To be enough, or sufficient; to meet the need (of anything); to be equal to the end proposed; to be adequate. [OE. suffisen, OF. soufire, F. suffire (cf. suffisant, p.pr.), L. sufficere to put under, to substitute, to avail for, to suffice; sub under + facere to make. Se]
- normalcy n.
- The quality, state, or fact of being normal; as, the point of normalcy.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Searched Soul 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 Searched Soul, in Sunset Gun (1928), text of English Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-sunset-gun/the-searched-soul.html, id L27436.
Form and metre
The Searched Soul is 12 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 92%).
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 AABBCCDDEEFF conA · uponA · wristB · twistB · sinC · chinC · eyesD · wiseD · apartE · heartE · meF · normalcyF
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 |
|---|---|---|
| When I consider, pro and con, | 8 | ··˘/˘··· |
| What things my love is built upon— | 8 | ········ |
| A curly mouth; a sinewed wrist; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| A questioning brow; a pretty twist | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Of words as old and tried as sin; | 8 | ········ |
| A pointed ear; a cloven chin; | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Long, tapered limbs; and slanted eyes | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Not cold nor kind nor darkly wise— | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| When so I ponder, here apart, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| What shallow boons suffice my heart, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/·· |
| What dust-bound trivia capture me, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| I marvel at my normalcy. | 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.