Faculty of Arts,
Chulalongkorn University
One Perfect Rose
(1923)
Dorothy
Parker
(August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967)
Notes
7 amulet: a charm (as an ornament)
often inscribed with a magic incantation or symbol to aid the wearer or
protect against evil (as disease or witchcraft) (Merriam-Webster)
10 limousine:
- 1: a large luxurious often chauffeur-driven sedan
that usually has a glass partition separating the driver's seat from the
passenger compartment (Merriam-Webster)
- The bride and groom rode in a limousine from the church to
the reception hall.
11 just
my luck: an informal spoken expression that means my bad luck,
misfortune
- luck 1c: customary or characteristic fortune as
evidenced by a series of successes or mishaps (Webster's Third New
International Dictionary)
- his hard luck followed him throughout his life
- it was his luck to go through the war without a scratch
- just our luck to get a fellow like that —James
Hilton
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Study Questions
-
As
you read the poem, when did you begin to suspect that the
perfect rose is not so perfect?
-
At
what point did the descriptions start to sound mocking,
forced, or stilted rather than earnest? What in the text
suggests that the speaker is complaining rather than feeling
flattered by the perfect rose?
- What about the text (ex. word choice, structure, meter,
rhyme, repetition) gives away the game before the limousine
reveal in the last stanza?
- When there is a poem with words like "flow'r," "rose" and
"love," what other words do you expect to find in it? Which
words in Parker's poem fit this expectation? Which words do
not belong? Why are they out of place? Indeed, one might ask,
which set of words are in the wrong place and time,
and what comments Parker might be making by calling our
attention to this incongruence?
- How does Parker play with tradition?
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Review Sheet
Sample
Student
Responses to Parker's "One Perfect Rose"
Response 1:
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Student
Name
2202234
Introduction to the Study of English Literature
Acharn
Puckpan Tipayamontri
June
3, 2009
Reading
Response #1
Title
Text.
Text.
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Response
2:
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Student Name
2202234 Introduction to the
Study of English Literature
Acharn Puckpan Tipayamontri
September 6, 2011
Reading Response #1
Title
<Text of
reading response>
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Reference
| Links |
Text of the poem
Criticism
Other
- Dorothy
Parker Audio-Video (links to audio files of Parker
reading many of her poems)
- Marion Capron, Interviews: Dorothy
Parker, The Paris Review 13 (1956)
- Rebekah Robertson, "Dorothy
Parker in the Twenties: A Member of the Round Table"
(1999)
- Mrs. Parker and the
Vicious Circle (1994; film, dir. Alan Rudolph)
- Clip
1: The Circle Is Formed (video clip, 2:43 min.)
- Clip
2: I Could Kiss You (video
clip, 2:36 min.)
- Clip
3: Married to the Town Drunk (video clip, 2:43 min.)
- Clip
4: Who Would Want To? (video clip, 2:27 min.)
- Clip
5: Drinking Booze and Talking Sex (video clip, 2:43 min.)
- Clip
6: I Lied When I Smiled (video clip, 2:42 min.)
- Clip
7: Tragedies Don't Kill Us (video clip, 2:29 min.)
- Clip
8: Unrequited Love (video
clip, 2:15 min.)
- Clip
9: Might As Well Live (video clip, 2:43 min.)
- Clip
10: Analyzing Mrs. Parker (video clip, 2:31 min.)
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Further Reading
Parker, Dorothy. The Collected Dorothy
Parker. Ed. Brendan Gill. New ed. New York: Penguin, 2001. Print.
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updated June 22, 2012