The Letter (Amy Lowell) by Amy Lowell
The speaker rejects a beloved’s cramped, awkward letter, finding its words incapable of conveying the moonlit beauty around her: oak leaves, an uncurtained window, a bare floor spattered with moonlight, and blossoming hawthorns. She is exhausted by longing and by trying to compress her heart into ink and send it by post. Alone beneath the blazing moon, she suffers intensely from the beloved’s absence.
By Amy Lowell · First published 1920 · Genre: Poetry, Literary Fiction, Historical · 151 words
First lines
Little cramped words scrawling all over the paper / Like draggled fly's legs, / What can you tell of the flaring moon / Through the oak leaves? / Or of my uncurtained window and the bare floor / Spattered with moonlight? / Your silly quirks and twists have nothing in them / Of blossoming hawthorns, / And this paper is dull, crisp, smooth, virgin of loveliness / Beneath my hand.
I am tired, Beloved, of chafing my heart against / The want of you; / Of squeezing it into little inkdrops, / And posting it.
And I scald alone, here, under the fire / Of the great moon.
What this Textopian page supports
The Letter (Amy Lowell) is listed on Textopian as a poem by Amy Lowell, dated 1920 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Amy Lowell
- Date: 1920 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Poetry, Literary Fiction, Historical
- Length: 151 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
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- Work identity for The Letter (Amy Lowell) by Amy Lowell
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- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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Genres
- Poetry — D.H. Lawrence and Amy Lowell are both renowned poets. Amy Lowell is a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet known for her 'imagist' style of writing, and D.H. Lawrence is known for his poetic exploration of nature and emotion. Their writing is clearly in the genre of poetry.
- Literary Fiction — Both authors are highly regarded in the literary world, they're known for their complex exploration of human nature, emotions, and relationships. 'The Letter' still falls under the broad umbrella of literary fiction.
- Historical — As 'The Letter' involves both Lawrence and Lowell, who are historic figures in the field of literature, it could potentially touch on the social, political, and cultural conditions of their time, aligning to the genre of historical.
Tags
love · loss · communication · intimacy · desire · poetry · emotion · relationships · conflict · identity · yearning · vulnerability