In Parker's poem, Ballade of Unfortunate Mammals, the narrator clumps elephants and women together as an image for more than a laugh, but to treat a serious topic in a ridiculous manner so as to hit the point home better. By addressing the object of the poem as 'son' she gives the poem a tone of advice, which questions reprovingly yet with humor, seeming to suggest a Mother's perspective.

          Parker laces the first four lines of her poem with an similie, introducing the reader to the concept she wishes to pose. Love takes on an everlasting quality--everlasting loneliness, that is--suggesting the blues love brings, also speaking to the sharp pain of rejection as stones or sticks; sleeplessness is inferred here, too, by the mention of the loud clock in the night, as well as an everlasting pain implied in the mention of the "Wandering Jew." Then Parker progesses to an examination of love in the monetary sense, also seeming to suggest that women are costly.

          In the second stanza the narrator admits that men are bound to seek women but should temper their fleeting desires since there isn't much chance of escaping misery. When Parker says, "Shoot if you must" the implication shifts from monetary back to animalistic terms, implying man as a hunter that will soon be stomped on if he continues foolish pursuit.

          The last stanza brings us back to the motif of foolish men, although this time Parker laces her statement with Caesar and Joynson-Hicks, two figures from history. Caesar didn't listen to the omens from his wife that he would die, and was murdered. The warning Parker issues comments on women as being the cause of curse, which is of course ironic since a woman issued the warning to save Caesar and she didn't heed him.

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