Analysis of Paths

Dorothy Parker 1893 (Long Branch) – 1967 (New York City)



I shall tread, another year,
  Ways I walked with Grief,
Past the dry, ungarnered ear
  And the brittle leaf.

I shall stand, a year apart,
  Wondering, and shy,
Thinking, "Here she broke her heart;
 Here she pled to die."

I shall hear the pheasants call,
  And the raucous geese;
Down these ways, another Fall,
  I shall walk with Peace.

But the pretty path I trod
  Hand-in-hand with Love-
Underfoot, the nascent sod,
  Brave young boughs above,

And the stripes of ribbon grass
  By the curling way-
I shall never dare to pass
  To my dying day.


Scheme XAXA BCBC DEDE FGFG HIHI
Poetic Form Quatrain 
Metre 1110101 11111 10111 00101 1110101 10001 1011101 11111 1110101 00101 1110101 11111 1010111 10111 010101 11101 0011101 10101 1110111 11101
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 535
Words 99
Sentences 5
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 20
Words per line (avg) 5
Letters per stanza (avg) 81
Words per stanza (avg) 19
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 27, 2023

29 sec read
116

Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. more…

All Dorothy Parker poems | Dorothy Parker Books

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