Interview, by Dorothy Parker, is a poem written in 1925, making it 87 years old, and is the Dorothy Parker Society of New York’s Poem of the Month. It is in “Dorothy Parker Complete Poems”; the book can be found here. And for more information about the Dorothy Parker Society and their events, including two September walking tours and a Sept. 29 Jazz Age-themed soiree, click here.
The ladies men admire, I’ve heard,
Would shudder at a wicked word.
Their candle gives a single light;
They’d rather stay at home at night.
They do not keep awake till three,
Nor read erotic poetry.
They never sanction the impure,
Nor recognize an overture.
They shrink from powders and from paints…
So far, I’ve had no complaints.