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Untitled -- Dorothy Parker

Guest poem sent in by "Sandeep Bhadra"
(Poem #1744) Untitled
 I wish I could drink like a lady
 I can take one or two at the most
 Three and I'm under the table
 Four and I'm under the host
-- Dorothy Parker
If we were going to have a theme about drinks in general, this one certainly
deserves mention. This poem is typical of Dorothy Parker's aesthetic --
crisp lines, to be meant for the dead-pan delivery of the truly blasé with
very little room for emotion or the pretence thereof. She makes no apology
for the love of her drink or for the consequences of binging on it. She
merely states the outcomes with the cold preciseness of a scientist, or, at
the very least, of an urban realist.

Decadent, self-aware and witty, Dorothy Parker's elite Manhattan social
circle included playwright George Kaufman and New Yorker founder Harold
Ross. They held many of their meetings at the Algonquin Hotel in New York,
which now offers a $10,000 martini, presumably in her honor. The Algonquin
also has this ode on all their napkins, in fond memory of their
distinguished patron.

Sandeep

[Martin adds]

Wikiquotes at least lists this as "attributed" to Dorothy Parker - does
anyone know for sure? It definitely sounds like authentic Parker to me.

martin

9 comments: ( or Leave a comment )

Alan S Kornheiser said...

Surely the poem goes thus:

Martinis my dear are deceptive
Take two at the very most
Three and you're under the table
Four and you're under the host.

Or at least that's how I heard it. I it certainly scans better

Alan Kornheiser

Barbara Burgwin said...

Hi,
Thanks for the Dorothy Parker poem. Here's one I like, that's related when
you get to the last line:

Changes

What I've learned from water
is to welcome change,
flow when I can, become snow when I must,
then a mist, hovering over the Earth
or a fog, snarling traffic,
even an ice clube,
tinkling in your drink.

~Barbara Wolf

Barbara (not Wolf)

Dale Rosenberg said...

It's not in _The Portable Dorothy Parker_. Doesn't
mean it's *not* hers...

Dale

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