The Whistling Girl
Back of my back, they talk of me,Gabble and honk and hiss;Let them batten, and let them be—Me, I can sing them this:
“Better to shiver beneath the stars,Head on a faithless breast,Than peer at the night through rusted bars,And share an irksome rest.
“Better to see the dawn come up,Along of a trifling one,Than set a steady man’s cloth and cupAnd pray the day be done.
“Better be left by twenty dearsThan lie in a loveless bed;Better a loaf that’s wet with tearsThan cold, unsalted bread.”
Back of my back, they wag their chins,Whinny and bleat and sigh;But better a heart a-bloom with sinsThan hearts gone yellow and dry!
Words in this poem
- honk n.
- The cry of a wild goose. [Of imitative origin.]
- batten v. t.
- To make fat by plenteous feeding; to fatten. [See Batful.]
- irksome a.
- Wearisome; tedious; disagreeable or troublesome by reason of long continuance or repetition; as, irksome hours; irksome tasks.
- loveless a.
- Void of love; void of tenderness or kindness. Milton. Shelton.
- bleat v. i.
- To make the noise of, or one like that of, a sheep; to cry like a sheep or calf. [OE. bleten, AS. bl; akin to D. blaten, bleeten, OHG. blazan, plazan; prob. of imitative origin.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
The Whistling Girl 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 Whistling Girl, in Sunset Gun (1928), text of English Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-sunset-gun/the-whistling-girl.html, id L27451.
Form and metre
The Whistling Girl is 20 lines in 5 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 85%).
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 meA · hissB · beA · thisB
- 2 ABAB starsA · breastB · barsA · restB
- 3 ABAB upA · oneB · cupA · doneB
- 4 ABAB dearsA · bedB · tearsA · breadB
- 5 ABAB chinsA · sighB · sinsA · dryB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Back of my back, they talk of me, | 8 | ········ |
| Gabble and honk and hiss; | 6 | /˘···· |
| Let them batten, and let them be— | 8 | ··/˘···· |
| Me, I can sing them this: | 6 | ······ |
| “Better to shiver beneath the stars, | 9 | /˘·/˘···· |
| Head on a faithless breast, | 6 | ···/˘· |
| Than peer at the night through rusted bars, | 9 | ······/˘· |
| And share an irksome rest. | 6 | ···/˘· |
| “Better to see the dawn come up, | 8 | /˘······ |
| Along of a trifling one, | 7 | ˘/··/˘· |
| Than set a steady man’s cloth and cup | 9 | ···/˘···· |
| And pray the day be done. | 6 | ······ |
| “Better be left by twenty dears | 8 | /˘···/˘· |
| Than lie in a loveless bed; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Better a loaf that’s wet with tears | 8 | /˘······ |
| Than cold, unsalted bread.” | 6 | ······ |
| Back of my back, they wag their chins, | 8 | ········ |
| Whinny and bleat and sigh; | 6 | /˘···· |
| But better a heart a-bloom with sins | 9 | ·/˘······ |
| Than hearts gone yellow and dry! | 7 | ···/˘·· |
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.