Prompt: Letters Never Received

I was teaching Melville's story, "Bartleby, the Scrivener," which concludes with the revelation that Bartleby used to be a subordinate clerk in the Dead Letter Office at Washington DC. Melville uses this setting as a metaphor for mortal hopelessness, misdirected communication, and loneliness.

I thought I knew of a poem about a dead letter office, but I could not find it. What I stumbled upon was the brief anonymous text here.

I found the letter I never gave you
and wondered if anything
would have changed if I did.
The paper felt lighter than I remember,
like time had taken some of its weight away.
I read it again
and so who I was back then
ready to be honest,
just not brave enough to follow through.

I don't know if it was intended as poetry, but it seemed to be a poem the way it appeared online. And that got me thinking about letters that are never received or never sent.

I thought of Emily Dickinson's letter to the world.

This is my letter to the world,
That never wrote to me,--
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty.
Her message is committed
To hands I cannot see;
For love of her, sweet countrymen,
Judge tenderly of me!

There are a variety of epistolary poems in the form of letters but the ones that interest us this month are ones that never were sent or received. The reasons why vary. Here are a few examples

"Letter to N.Y" by Elizabeth Bishop is a letter you couldn't send.

In your next letter I wish you'd say
where you are going and what you are doing;
how are the plays, and after the plays
what other pleasures you are pursuing:..

Letter Beginning with Two Lines by Czesław Miłosz by Matthew Olzmann:
You whom I could not save,
Listen to me.

Can we agree Kevlar
backpacks shouldn’t be needed
for children walking to school?

It is about gun violence and school shootings, and the title and opening lines invoke Miłosz’s poem “Dedication”, both poems attempting to bridge historical atrocities with modern, senseless acts. Who is it addressed to? All of us.

A famous letter poem is Sylvia Plath's "Daddy." This confessional work is about a daughter breaking free from the painful, controlling memory of her dead father (and her husband). Plath uses nursery rhyme rhythms alongside Holocaust and vampire metaphors in her rejection of male control.

Looking at her poem led me to her poet husband, Ted Hughes. His poem about a letter and his correspondence with Sylvia is contained in "The Last Letter." (More about that here)

For our September issue, we are looking for poems that are letters never sent or never received, or poems about letters never sent or received. They might be in the form of a letter, but that is not a requirement.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: AUGUST 31 

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Last Letters: Plath and Hughes

Hughes                                       Plath

In writing our prompt for our September issue about "Letters Never Received," we referenced a very famous letter poem by Sylvia Plath - "Daddy."  This confessional work is about a daughter breaking free from the painful, controlling memory of her dead father (and also her husband). Plath uses nursery rhyme rhythms alongside Holocaust and vampire metaphors. 

That poem might also lead you to look at another poem by her husband, Ted Hughes. His poem, "The Last Letter,' is another poem never sent. 

It is about his correspondence with Sylvia. His poem was withheld from the original 1998 publication of Birthday Letters, but it was discovered in his archive and published posthumously in 2010 by The New Statesman. The poem deals directly with the final physical letter he received from Plath right before her suicide.

It details the final three days of Plath's life and a specific letter.  Sylvia had mailed Hughes a letter that effectively served as a suicide note. However, due to a mailing mishap, the letter arrived early—while she was still alive.

The poem details Hughes rushing to her apartment after reading it. He finds her seemingly fine, and she burns the letter in front of him, leading him to think the danger had passed. He returns to his own flat, only for her to take her life shortly after.

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Follow this blog for all things poetry.
To see our past prompts and more than 300 issues,
visit our website at poetsonline.org

Opening Emily Dickinson

We know Emily's poems. Emily didn't write prose. No notebooks, journals or diaries. Well, wait - she wrote letters. Lots of them.

If you're looking for who Emily Dickinson really "is" I think you will find it in the letters - when you read them along with the poems.

I remember reading Emily's poems in high school. My impression of her (bolstered by that one sad photo) was of a hermit, virgin who had a sad life spent mostly in her room, house and garden. Poor little Em.

I didn't really like Emily's poems back then. I like them a lot more now, but that came through learning more about her. I know I'm not supposed to enjoy poems more because I like the poet, but that's what has happened. I seem to write a lot here about Emily and her writing.

There is more joy and life in her letters. She's not the lonely spinster in many of those letters. There is life, love and passion.

There are a number of collections of her letters including multi-volume sets like one facsimile set published by Forgotten Books and also shorter edited (and sometimes censored) selected letters.

The letters that interest me most - and are getting more attention lately - are ones to Susan. Those letters record a thirty-six year correspondence with her childhood friend and neighbor, Susan Gilbert, who would later be her sister-in-law, Susan Dickinson.

There is a good introduction to the Susan and Emily relationship in a post on BrainPickings. I read through the single volume collection of these letters titled Open Me Carefully. These are not censored and so offer a different Emily Dickinson and her letters (also some poems) to Sue, Susan, Susie.

Show me Eternity, and I will show you Memory —Both in one package lainAnd lifted back again —Be Sue — while I am Emily —Be next — what you have ever been — Infinity.

Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson  is a new book that shines a new light to Emily. Not a lonely spinster in her letters which are presented here without much commentary. They speak for themselves.

"... unlike previous editors who altered line breaks to fit their sense of what is poetry or prose, Hart and Smith offer faithful reproductions of the letters' genre-defying form as the words unravel spectacularly down the original page." - Renee Tursi, The New York Times Book Review

There have been several modern screen versions of a more passionate Emily Dickinson. The latest one is an original on the new Apple+ channel called Dickinson. It is a historical period comedy-drama series that stars Hailee Steinfeld as Emily. It explores Emily's love for Susan Gilbert. The first season was released in November 2019 and a second season will follow.

In a letter to Susan:

I need you more and more, and the great world grows wider . . . every day you stay away — I miss my biggest heart; my own goes wandering round, and calls for Susie… Susie, forgive me Darling, for every word I say — my heart is full of you . . . yet when I seek to say to you something not for the world, words fail me… I shall grow more and more impatient until that dear day comes, for til now, I have only mourned for you; now I begin to hope for you.

Now, farewell, Susie . . . I add a kiss, shyly, lest there is somebody there! Don’t let them see, will you Susie?

And finally, in a mix of Emily's poems and letters, there are her poems written on envelopes which were finally published as The Gorgeous Nothings. This is a full-color facsimile edition of the envelope poems. There are 52 envelope poems.

                   

PHOTO USED ABOVE IN SECTIONS: Daguerreotype of Emily Dickinson taken at Mt. Holyoke in December 1847 or early 1848

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Dear Poet - 2016

Many classrooms participated in this year’s Dear Poet Project during National Poetry Month writing letters to poets. The Academy of American Poets received over 1,300 letters!

Take a look at the correspondences between students and poets who serve on the Academy of American Poets Board of Chancellors: https://www.poets.org/national-poetry-month/dear-poet-letters-2016