Dorothy Parker

Okay, interwebians. I'm working on my next post - it will be epic. In the meantime, here's Dorothy Parker to tide you over.

Dorothy Parker was born in 1893 as Dorothy Rothschild. She married Edwin Parker, but divorced him 11 years later. She went to a Catholic grammar school, and then to a finishing school, but "her formal education abruptly ended when she was 14." She married Alan Campbell in 1934. They divorced in 1947, remarried in 1950, and he died of a drug overdose in 1963.

She wrote poems and short stories, and was a drama editor for Vanity Fair. An influential voice in New York literary scene, she, along with Robert Benchley and Robert Sherwood formed a social group called the Algonquin Roundtable, after the place where the meetings were held, the Algonquin Hotel. The group was also referred to as the Vicious Circle due to the sharp banter the participants engaged in. She was famous for saying - among many other very witty things: “The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue.” She also helped found the Screenwriter's Guild in Hollywood, and reported on the Spanish Civil War.

Dorothy Parker was involved in politics, fighting for civil rights, and the socialist party. Her involvement with the socialist party led to her being called in front of the House on Un-American activities in the 1950s, where she pled the fifth. Dorothy Parker struggled with depression and alcoholism and died in 1967 of a heart attack. She left her estate to Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Passionate Freudian to His Love

Only name the day, and we’ll fly away
 In the face of old traditions,
To a sheltered spot, by the world forgot,
 Where we’ll park our inhibitions.
Come and gaze in eyes where the lovelight lies
 As it psychoanalyzes,
And when once you glean what your fantasies mean
 Life will hold no more surprises.
When you’ve told your love what you’re thinking of
 Things will be much more informal;
Through a sunlit land we’ll go hand-in-hand,
 Drifting gently back to normal.

While the pale moon gleams, we will dream sweet dreams,
 And I’ll win your admiration,
For it’s only fair to admit I’m there
 With a mean interpretation.
In the sunrise glow we will whisper low
 Of the scenes our dreams have painted,
And when you’re advised what they symbolized
 We’ll begin to feel acquainted.
So we’ll gaily float in a slumber boat
 Where subconscious waves dash wildly;
In the stars’ soft light, we will say good-night—
 And “good-night!” will put it mildly.

Our desires shall be from repressions free—
 As it’s only right to treat them.
To your ego’s whims I will sing sweet hymns,
 And ad libido repeat them.
With your hand in mine, idly we’ll recline
 Amid bowers of neuroses,
While the sun seeks rest in the great red west
 We will sit and match psychoses.
So come dwell a while on that distant isle
 In the brilliant tropic weather;
Where a Freud in need is a Freud indeed,
 We’ll always be Jung together.

Hat-tip to Dorothy Parker on FaceBook:
https://www.facebook.com/DorothyParkerQuotes

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. 

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.