Customer Reviews

Complete Poems (Penguin Classics)

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If Margaret Cho could really, really write, and was a young white socialite in the 1920-30s, she'd have been Dorothy Parker. Dorothy is sharp, and she cuts people to the quick, and in no better light than in this Penguin collection. She hates husbands, wives, smart-asses (though she is the preeminent smart-ass woman of her time), summer resorts...you name it, Parker trashes it.

The cool thing about her is that she does this with such cosmopolitan flair (small surprise since she wrote for Vogue and Vanity Fair for years) and obvious care (her poems almost always rhyme and subscribe to some traditional structure) that she makes herself almost untouchable to critic. She's good, she knows she's good, and watch out world, here she comes.

Not just another pretty muse for a Prince song, and great for classes.

This is a wonderful collection of poems from the "wittiest woman in America". She clearly earns that title here, with her hilarious attacks on anything and everything deserving of ridicule, of which her "Hymns of Hate" are a delightful example. Parker's prose also has a darkly introspective side; one often finds allusions to her painful romantic life and her four suicide attempts (such as perhaps her most famous poem, "Resume"). As her serious poems and her cynically comical ones start off in the same tone, one never knows quite what one is getting into.

Parker's poems are as much for the hater of poetry as the aficionado- they are in a sense a direct attack on the affected melodrama that pervades and stereotypes poetry. And if one doesn't find them, like some reviewers, "dark", "beautiful" and "moving", at least one will get a laugh.

dorothy parker was one of the sharpest wits we've ever seen, and this collection of poems shows her talents at their best. you do get a little tired of her cynicism after a while, but her first two classics, Enough Rope & Sunset Gun both make it worthwhile to read. she is one of the best poets we've had.

Witty, irreverent, articulate, brilliant. Marked my favorites with post-its, and almost every one is marked. Dorothy Parker was a poetic genius, and these poems are a luscious treat!

It's amazing that these poems,written well over half a century ago,still retain their bite,impact and immediacy. And it's rather inspiring that Ms. Parker,in spite of her personal demons, still managed to produce such an impressive body of work. A very good introduction to her writing,especially if you only know her from the movie made about her,or just as one of several people who hung around a certain hotel in NY,trading quips with other writers. Check this one out,you're in for a treat..!