Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker, orig. Dorothy Rothschild, (born Aug. 22, 1893, West End, near Long Beach, N.J., U.S.—died June 7, 1967, New York, N.Y.), U.S. short-story writer and poet. She grew up in affluence in New York City. She was a drama critic for Vanity Fair and wrote book reviews for The New Yorker (1927–33). Her poetry volumes include Enough Rope (1926) and Death and Taxes (1931). Her short stories were collected in Laments for the Living (1930) and After Such Pleasures (1933). She also worked as a film writer, reported on the Spanish Civil War, and collaborated on several plays. A member of the Algonquin Round Table, she is chiefly remembered for her wit. Source

Recurrence

We shall have our little day.

Take my hand and travel still

Round and round the little way,

Up and down the little hill.

It is good to love again;

Scan the renovated skies,

Dip and drive the idling pen,

Sweetly tint the paling lies.

Trace the dripping, piercèd heart,

Speak the fair, insistent verse,

Vow to God, and slip apart,

Little better, little worse.

Would we need not know before

How shall end this prettiness;

One of us must love the more,

One of us shall love the less.

Thus it is, and so it goes;

We shall have our day, my dear.

Where, unwilling, dies the rose

Buds the new, another year.

Published:

1926

Length:

Regular

Literary Movements:

Modernism

Anthology Years:

2023

Themes:

Love & Relationships

Memory & The Past