Dorothy Parker - Symptom Recital -- scene from the movie Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle

Dorothy Parker's poem, Symptom Recital, read by Jennifer Jason Leigh in the movie about the poet's life and the days of Algonquin Round Table:




"I do not like my state of mind;
I'm bitter, querulous, unkind.
I hate my legs, I hate my hands,
I do not yearn for lovelier lands.
I dread the dawn's recurrent light;
I hate to go to bed at night.
I snoot at simple, earnest folk.
I cannot take the gentlest joke.
I find no peace in paint or type.
My world is but a lot of tripe.
I'm disillusioned, empty-breasted.
For what I think, I'd be arrested.
I am not sick, I am not well.
My quondam dreams are shot to hell.
My soul is crushed, my spirit sore;
I do not like me any more.
I cavil, quarrel, grumble, grouse.
I ponder on the narrow house.
I shudder at the thought of men....
I'm due to fall in love again."

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Dorothy Parker
• Symptom Recital
• poem
• Algonquin Round Table
• American writers