[Skip Navigation]

Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

The Danger Of Writing Defiant Verse

Dorothy Parker

And now I have another lad!
 No longer need you tell
How all my nights are slow and sad
 For loving you too well.

His ways are not your wicked ways,
 He’s not the like of you.
He treads his path of reckoned days,
 A sober man, and true.

They’ll never see him in the town,
 Another on his knee.
He’d cut his laden orchards down,
 If that would pleasure me.

He’d give his blood to paint my lips
 If I should wish them red.
He prays to touch my finger-tips
 Or stroke my prideful head.

He never weaves a glinting lie,
 Or brags the hearts he’ll keep.
I have forgotten how to sigh—
 Remembered how to sleep.

He’s none to kiss away my mind—
 A slower way is his.
Oh, Lord! On reading this, I find
 A silly lot he is.
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Death and Taxes | Written c. 1931
Add Keyword Tags

Separate each tag with a space. You may add as many tags as you'd like to each poem.

What are tags?
Tags, sometimes called “folksonomies,” are words that describe or categorize a poem, like “20th century modernism” or “Italian sonnet”. Tags can help you find poems that have something in common, based on how other people classify them.

More Info

This site will work and look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any Internet device.