Song in a Minor Key

By Dorothy Parker 1893–1967 Dorothy Parker

There's a place I know where the birds swing low,

And wayward vines go roaming,

Where the lilacs nod, and a marble god

Is pale, in scented gloaming.

And at sunset there comes a lady fair

Whose eyes are deep with yearning.

By an old, old gate does the lady wait

Her own true love's returning.

But the days go by, and the lilacs die,

And trembling birds seek cover;

Yet the lady stands, with her long white hands

Held out to greet her lover.

And it's there she'll stay till the shadowy day

A monument they grave her.

She will always wait by the same old gate, —

The gate her true love gave her.

Biography

Dorothy Parker’s biting wit made her a legend, but it also masked her lonely struggle with depression. A member of the Algonquin Round Table group of writers, she wrote criticism for Vogue, Vanity Fair, and later the New Yorker. During the 1930s Parker moved to Hollywood, where she worked on such films as A Star Is Born, for which she won an Academy Award.

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