Fitzgerald is the author of this poem used as an epigraph to open The Great Gatsby. Thomas Parke D'Invilliers was a character in Fitzgerald's earlier novel, This Side of Paradise.
The poem:
Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her;
If you can bounce high, bounce for her too,
Till she cry, ‘Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover,
I must have you!’— Thomas Parke D’Invilliers
The speaker of this poem urges the lover to do whatever it takes to capture the woman that he desires. Wearing "the gold hat" implies taking on the appearance of wealth; "bounce high" suggests that the economic and social ascent he earns for himself will attract her admiration, and that when the wealth, success, and social ascent are attained, she will be unable to resist him.
The sentiment expressed by the poem suggests both the pressure Fitzgerald felt to make himself suitable for Zelda Sayre, the woman who rejected him until he became a literary success, and what Jay Gatsby understands he must do to acquire Daisy's love.
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