The Background
"A Certain Lady" is an insightful poem composed by the American poet, Dorothy Parker. The lady was a well known satirist and critic during her time. She was also a short story writer and a wisecracker. After a thorough analysis we have provided below the meaning of this poem.

The Structure
The poem is written in 2 stanzas with each having 12 lines. There’s a noticeable rhyme scheme used in the poem. The poet used metaphor and other poetic devices in conveying her love message.

The Meaning
The Poem A Certain Lady tells a story of lady who interacts with her lover boy. The lady uses her body language including her appearance and smiles to entice the man. She acts like a flirt. The man tells her about his experience with ladies and other exploits of his. The stories make the lady to be unhappy. But she pretends and behaves as if she’s happy with the stories. The lady tries to exercise control over the man through her behavior. She actually wants him to stop his dealings with other ladies and then focus his love only upon her. She wants him to understand his feelings and pains. Despite her antics, she was unable to get the man behave the way she actually wanted.

The poem showcases what happens in the real life. Most ladies are jealous when they discover their men have affairs with some other ladies out there. In most cases, they do their best to win the full attention of the man. Some ladies do succeed in the process. They use everything in their power to win their men. However, some other ladies don’t succeed. The harder they try; the farther, the men go in meddling with other ladies.