Parker, Dorothy | Harold Rosenberg (essay date 1931)
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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