Criticism > Poetry > Parker, Dorothy - Harold Rosenberg (essay date 1931)

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Harold Rosenberg (essay date 1931)

SOURCE: “Nor Rosemary, Nor Rue,” in Poetry, Vol. XXXIX, No. 3, December 1931, pp. 159-61.

[Rosenberg focuses on Death and Taxes with respect to sentiment, wit, and poetic quality.]

Since Mrs. Parker is too often satisfied with such readymade images as “my narrow bed” for a grave, and

The weary pen that sets my sorrow down
Feeds at my heart,

it is obvious that her small lyrics can hardly be considered seriously as poetry written today. Criticism of her work, therefore, since space does not permit the more general and more interesting inquiry into the socio-psychological reasons for her popularity, must consist of an examination of those characteristics which give to it the appearance of poetry. I shall comment on three of these: its sentiment, its wit, and its trace of poetic quality.

I. The sentiment, as suggested by the title [Death and Taxes], varies for...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Edmund Wilson (review date 1927)
   2. The New York Times Book Review (review date 1927)
   3. Marie Luhrs (review date 1927)
   4. William Rose Benét (review date 1928)
   5. Garreta Busey (review date 1928)
   6. Henry Seidel Canby (review date 1931)
   7. Percy Hutchison (review date 1931)
   8. Harold Rosenberg (essay date 1931)
   9. William Rose Benét (review date 1936)
   10. Louis Kronenberger (review date 1936)
   11. Monica Redlich (review date 1937)
   12. Edith H. Walton (review date 1928)
   13. Arthur F. Kinney (essay date 1998)
   14. Arthur F. Kinney (essay date 1998)
4. Copyright

1. Dorothy Parker
2. How to Analyze a Poem
3. Poetry