Theory
Into love and out again,Thus I went, and thus I go.Spare your voice, and hold your pen—Well and bitterly I knowAll the songs were ever sung,All the words were ever said;Could it be, when I was young,Some one dropped me on my head?
Words in this poem
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
- bitterly adv.
- In a bitter manner.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Theory 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, Theory, in Sunset Gun (1928), text of English Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-sunset-gun/theory.html, id L27463.
Form and metre
Theory is 8 lines in a single stanza. It rhymes ABABCDCD. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 90%).
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 againA · goB · penA · knowB · sungC · saidD · youngC · headD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Into love and out again, | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Thus I went, and thus I go. | 7 | ······· |
| Spare your voice, and hold your pen— | 7 | ······· |
| Well and bitterly I know | 7 | ··/˘˘·· |
| All the songs were ever sung, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| All the words were ever said; | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Could it be, when I was young, | 7 | ······· |
| Some one dropped me on my head? | 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.