The Trusting Heart
Oh, I’d been better dying,Oh, I was slow and sad;A fool I was, a-cryingAbout a cruel lad!
But there was one that found me,That wept to see me weep,And had his arm around me,And gave me words to keep.
And I’d be better dying,And I am slow and sad;A fool I am, a-cryingAbout a tender lad!
About this text
The Trusting Heart 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 Trusting Heart, in Sunset Gun (1928), text of English Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-sunset-gun/the-trusting-heart.html, id L27437.
Form and metre
The Trusting Heart is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 96%).
See other poems in common measure.
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 dyingA · sadB · cryingA · ladB
- 2 ABAB meA · weepB · meA · keepB
- 3 ABAB dyingA · sadB · cryingA · ladB
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 common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Oh, I’d been better dying, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| Oh, I was slow and sad; | 6 | ······ |
| A fool I was, a-crying | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| About a cruel lad! | 6 | ···/˘· |
| But there was one that found me, | 7 | ······· |
| That wept to see me weep, | 6 | ······ |
| And had his arm around me, | 7 | ······· |
| And gave me words to keep. | 6 | ······ |
| And I’d be better dying, | 7 | ···/˘/˘ |
| And I am slow and sad; | 6 | ······ |
| A fool I am, a-crying | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| About a tender lad! | 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.