Poetry Response to Dorothy Parker's Résumé

Résumé

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.
--Dorothy Parker (1925)

#9.) Explain the meaning of the title.

The title of Dorothy Parker’s poem, Résumé, proves rather ironic and is a stark contrast to what one usually associates with a résumé, or summary of one’s life’s work. While there is an element of humor with her choice in diction with the title, this same humor serves to mask an undercurrent of pain. The poem is rife with death imagery and contains a list of various means of suicide, and such morbid diction parallels the darkness of Parker’s life. Parker made various suicide attempts throughout her life, in which she cut her wrists, overdosed on sedatives, consumed a bottle of shoe polish, and took sleeping powder. Both her husbands died from drug poisoning. Considering the death and suicide attempts that prevailed throughout Parker’s life, it makes sense that she would define her résumé with such. In addition, the title of Parker’s poem serves as a flippant self-acknowledgment that a part of her livelihood is rooted in her commentary on her dark life; Parker is known for her ironic, dark wit and thrived as a critic. Despite Parker’s painful self-acknowledgement of the vicissitudes of her life, she did little to remedy her habits. Instead, she wrote about them, and gained recognition and rose in prominence because of her words. Furthermore, the idea of a résumé often involves some element of concealment; a résumé merely lists the accomplishments one wishes to present in a professional context and not the subtext of one’s character. While Parker may be highlighting the darkness that prevailed throughout her life, she may also be hinting at fact that her life was characterized by many other things as well.

Source: “RPO – Dorothy Parker: Résumé.” Representative Poetry Online. 5 November 2007. <http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1558.html>

--Amy Chou