Take My Vows

Dorothy Parker

Then take my vows and scatter them to sea;
Who swears the sweetest is no more than human,
And say no kindlier words than these of me:
“Ever she longed for peace, but was a woman;
And thus are they, whose silly female dust
Needs little enough to clutter it and bind it,
Who meet a slanted gaze, and ever must
Go build themselves a soul, to dwell behind it.”
For now I am my own again, my friend!
This scar but points the whiteness of my breast;
This frenzy, like its betters, spins on end—
And now am I my own, and that is best.
Therefore, I am immeasurably grateful
To you, for proving shallow, false, and hateful.

Dorothy Parker was an American poet, writer, and founder of the Algonquin Round Table. She died in 1967.
Originally published:
October 1, 1930

Featured

Louise Glück’s Late Style

The fabular turn in the poet’s last three books
Teju Cole

The Critic as Friend

The challenge of reading generously
Merve Emre

Rachel Cusk

The novelist on the “feminine non-state of non-being”
Merve Emre

You Might Also Like


Mock Orange

Louise Glück


Newsletter

Sign up for The Yale Review newsletter and keep up with news, events, and more.