The Second Oldest Story
Go I must along my waysThough my heart be ragged,Dripping bitter through the days,Festering, and jagged.Smile I must at every twinge,Kiss, to time its throbbing;He that tears a heart to fringeHates the noise of sobbing.
Weep, my love, till Heaven hears;Curse and moan and languish.While I wash your wound with tears,Ease aloud your anguish.Bellow of the pit in HellWhere you’re made to linger.There and there and well and well—Did he prick his finger!
Words in this poem
- dripping n.
- A falling in drops, or the sound so made.
- twinge v. i.
- To pull with a twitch; to pinch; to tweak. [OE. twengen, AS. twengan; akin to OE. twingen to pain, afflict, OFries. thwinga, twinga, dwinga, to constrain, D. dwingen, OS. thwingan, G. zwingen, OHG. dwinga]
- sobbing n.
- A series of short, convulsive inspirations, the glottis being suddenly closed so that little or no air enters into the lungs.
- languish v. i.
- To cause to dr Shak.
- aloud adv.
- With a loud voice, or great noise; loudly; audibly. [Pref. a- + loud.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Second Oldest Story 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 Second Oldest Story, in Sunset Gun (1928), text of English Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-sunset-gun/the-second-oldest-story.html, id L27421.
Form and metre
The Second Oldest Story is 16 lines in 2 stanzas of 8 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 94%).
See other poems in trochaic 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 ABABCDCD waysA · raggedB · daysA · jaggedB · twingeC · throbbingD · fringeC · sobbingD
- 2 ABABCDCD hearsA · languishB · tearsA · anguishB · hellC · lingerD · wellC · fingerD
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 trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Go I must along my ways | 7 | ···˘/·· |
| Though my heart be ragged, | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| Dripping bitter through the days, | 7 | /˘/˘··· |
| Festering, and jagged. | 5 | /˘˘·· |
| Smile I must at every twinge, | 8 | ····/˘˘· |
| Kiss, to time its throbbing; | 6 | ····/˘ |
| He that tears a heart to fringe | 7 | ······· |
| Hates the noise of sobbing. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| Weep, my love, till Heaven hears; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Curse and moan and languish. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| While I wash your wound with tears, | 7 | ······· |
| Ease aloud your anguish. | 6 | ·˘/·/˘ |
| Bellow of the pit in Hell | 7 | /˘····· |
| Where you’re made to linger. | 6 | ····/˘ |
| There and there and well and well— | 7 | ······· |
| Did he prick his finger! | 6 | ····/˘ |
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.