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.
Take My Vows
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was an American poet, writer, and founder of the Algonquin Round Table. She died in 1967.
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