Dorothy Parker was an American poet, critic, short story writer, and best known for her humors and a good forecasting sense.
Dorothy had a troubled and sad childhood. She lost her mother at the age of five and later lost her stepmother at the age of 9 and by the time she completed her graduation, she lost her father also. In a series of misfortune, Dorothy survived to keep her self witty and her writing going.
After her father’s death, to support herself, she used to play piano at a dancing school, but still she continued her skills in writing and at the age of 19, she sold her first poem.
In 1925, when the “The New Yorker” was founded, Parker and one of her friends were at the board and her first piece of work for the magazine was published, which was quickly accepted by the readers for her caustic, short, humorous poems, many of which were into romance and some were into suicide.
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In 1926, she published her first volume in poetry. It was during the 1920’s that Parker had her most productive years and her works were widely accepted for the wit and style that she had.
However, her personal life was in great disaster. In the year 1934, Parker had a successful career in Hollywood and were highly paid screen writer of those times.
Since her life was a chaos all the time, she was mostly into depression and had several suicidal attempts. However she dies due to a hear attack when she was 73.
The poem Star Light Star bright is a poem where she has reflected her feelings and desires and how she feels at a loss. The first stanza just mentions about the beauty of the star and what she should choose.
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Simultaneously she also says, whether it a soul up in the sky, which shows a contradiction of her thoughts.
In the second stanza, she talks about the desire of having a wedding ring which is thin, round and beautiful and immediately she next talks about her pleading about sending her a covered spaded mound.
In the third stanza, she talks about a thought of sailing golden ships or is it the lying lips that she sees and hears which she hates the most.
In the final stanza, she reflects a mixture of feelings like swing in high and low, which could depict mood variation again she talks about burning hot or dim, which could be the depth of pain which would be high or low. Her only wish which she state is that, she gets her true love, even though she may not say.
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Parker strongly missed the love and affection in her life, and she has portrayed that feel of pain and agony that she felt for not getting that love through this poem. Even though she had all the success she wanted and was well known, the thirst for true love was always within her and that is what has been reflecting in her poems, in a mixture of feeling of both pain and loneliness, in spite of all the success around her.