“Resumé” Summary

“Resumé” Themes

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  Life and Death

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Resumé”

• Lines 1-4

  Razors pain you;
  Rivers are damp;
  Acids stain you;
  And drugs cause cramp.

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 5-8

  Guns aren't lawful;
  Nooses give;
  Gas smells awful;
  You might as well live.

  

  

  

  

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“Resumé” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Irony

  

  

  

  

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• End-Stopped Line

  

  

  

  

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• Parallelism

  

  

  

  

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• Understatement

  

  

  

  

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• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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“Resumé” Vocabulary

Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

• Lawful
• Nooses
• Give
• Gas

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Resumé”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Resumé” Speaker

“Resumé” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Resumé”

More “Resumé” Resources

• External Resources

  • The Poem Aloud — Listen to a recording of Dorothy Parker herself reading the poem out loud.

  • Enough Rope — See images of a first edition of Enough Rope, the collection "Resumé" first appeared in.

  • The Dorothy Parker Society — Visit the website of the Dorothy Parker Society to learn more about Parker's legacy.

  • A Brief Biography — Learn about Parker's life.

  • More of Parker's Poetry — Read more of Parker's witty verse.

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Dorothy Parker

  • One Perfect Rose