Enough Rope Poems (Annotated)

By: Dorothy Parker

Narrated by: Cara Firestone

Enough Rope, published in 1926, is Dorothy Parker’s first of three volumes of poems. It was a smashing success. The magazine The Nation described it as "caked with a salty humor, rough with splinters of disillusion, and tarred with a bright black authenticity”. It is filled with self-deprecation, disdain for traditional gender roles and romance, contemplation of death (both others’ and her own), and a healthy dose of "who the hell cares anyway?"

Parker’s poems continue to resonate today. She was trying to make sense of who she was in a world that was busy telling her who she could and should be, regardless of how she felt about it. Aren’t we all? Having Parker’s acerbic irreverence and wit reflect our own lives back to us, in which, as she says, “good and bad are woven in a crazy plaid”, gives us reassurance, perspective, courage, and a much needed laugh. Because, as Ms. Parker tells us in "Résumé", after all the reflection is said and done, “you might as well live”.

Public Domain (P)2022 Cara Firestone