Summer, do your worst!

Three poems by Dorothy Parker

Author

Publish Date

Aug. 2, 2017

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) used her talents to speak her mind through a candid pen.

August

When my eyes are weeds,
And my lips are petals, spinning
Down the wind that has beginning
Where the crumpled beeches start
In a fringe of salty reeds;
When my arms are elder-bushes,
And the rangy lilac pushes
Upward, upward through my heart;

Summer, do your worst!
Light your tinsel moon, and call on
Your performing stars to fall on
Headlong through your paper sky;
Nevermore shall I be cursed
By a flushed and amorous slattern,
With her dusty laces’ pattern
Trailing, as she straggles by.

A Very Short Song

Once, when I was young and true,
Someone left me sad —
Broke my brittle heart in two;
And that is very bad.

Love is for unlucky folk,
Love is but a curse.
Once there was a heart I broke;
And that, I think, is worse.

A Dream Lies Dead

A dream lies dead here. May you softly go
Before this place, and turn away your eyes,
Nor seek to know the look of that which dies
Importuning Life for life. Walk not in woe,
But, for a little, let your step be slow.
And, of your mercy, be not sweetly wise
With words of hope and Spring and tenderer skies.
A dream lies dead; and this all mourners know:

Whenever one drifted petal leaves the tree —
Though white of bloom as it had been before
And proudly waitful of fecundity —
One little loveliness can be no more;
And so must Beauty bow her imperfect head
Because a dream has joined the wistful dead!

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) was an American writer, known for her poetry, short stories, and criticism, much of which was infused with a unique satirical style popular even to this day. Defined by her acerbic wit — she is often considered a successor of sorts to Oscar Wilde — she used her talents to speak her mind through a candid pen about the folly and vanity of the 20th Century. Her poetry, though, often shows an equally tender side to her talent. A founding member of the Algonquin Round Table, she established her literary footing through publication in The New Yorker before heading west to try her hand at Hollywood screenwriting, a career abridged after being blacklisted for her left-wing politics.