Wisdom
This I say, and this I know:Love has seen the last of me.Love’s a trodden lane to woe,Love’s a path to misery.
This I know, and knew before,This I tell you, of my years:Hide your heart, and lock your door.Hell’s afloat in lovers’ tears.
Give your heart, and toss and moan,What a pretty fool you look!I am sage, who sit alone;Here’s my wool, and here’s my book.
Look! A lad’s a-waiting there,Tall he is and bold, and gay.What the devil do I careWhat I know, and what I say?
Words in this poem
- afloat adv.
- Borne on the water; floating; on board ship. [Pref. a- + float.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Wisdom 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, Wisdom, in Sunset Gun (1928), text of English Wikisource, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/parker-sunset-gun/wisdom.html, id L27473.
Form and metre
Wisdom is 16 lines in 4 stanzas of 4 lines each. Every stanza rhymes ABAB. 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 ABAB knowA · meB · woeA · miseryB
- 2 ABAB beforeA · yearsB · doorA · tearsB
- 3 ABAB moanA · lookB · aloneA · bookB
- 4 ABAB thereA · gayB · careA · sayB
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 |
|---|---|---|
| This I say, and this I know: | 7 | ······· |
| Love has seen the last of me. | 7 | ······· |
| Love’s a trodden lane to woe, | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Love’s a path to misery. | 7 | ····/˘˘ |
| This I know, and knew before, | 7 | ······· |
| This I tell you, of my years: | 7 | ······· |
| Hide your heart, and lock your door. | 7 | ······· |
| Hell’s afloat in lovers’ tears. | 7 | ·˘/·/˘· |
| Give your heart, and toss and moan, | 7 | ······· |
| What a pretty fool you look! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| I am sage, who sit alone; | 7 | ·····˘/ |
| Here’s my wool, and here’s my book. | 7 | ······· |
| Look! A lad’s a-waiting there, | 7 | ····/˘· |
| Tall he is and bold, and gay. | 7 | ······· |
| What the devil do I care | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| What I know, and what I say? | 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.