Analysis of Letter Poem



Dear Ashley
I have heard so much of you
As my fingers flirt with my pen
I craft these words for you
I hope my lines are read
As I write my eyes are red
Because it hurts to know that you secretly weep
And wipe the tears you shed

You cloak your pain with a fake smile
Your joy is far away, it's on exile
Your mood's been on the playground
Your mood swings
You wish you grew wings
So you could fly away from all the hurt
To a place where pain is naught

The one you loved you lost
It is hard for you to trust
You've died a thousand times within
Your fragile heart is crushed
Oh Ashley, I hear you fear the dark
My sentiments exactly
Some days I feel the shadows will attack
I fear too, but Ashley I like to dare too
To believe I could spark a fire inside me
That will light me so brightly
The darkling runs to hiding

Ashley, I heard you messed up badly
Do not treat yourself harshly
I heard it's been hard for you to forge ahead
I heard your head is hung low
You've watched your friends become foes
Oh Ashley! This life is kung fu
We fight, giving up is what we don't do
I thought you might have known of the highs and lows

Ashley, as we navigate through this crazy life
This thing we all feel
We all see, we can all relate
Like gunshots, bullets penetrate
Whether you are twelve year old or sixty eight
Whether you are a commoner or highborn
Heartbreaks are like thorns
They pierce you when they have too
They don't regard you

This is what makes us human Ashley
That we have some brittle parts
And behind stolid masks
We have feeble hearts
We can shed a tear because things can tear us apart
We can fall a thousand times and stand up tall again
And then fall again
Ashley, we lose or gain

And so forget the ashes, Ashley
Fight for your life
Be weak when you must
But be strong for yourself
Or you will be dead before your life really ends

All things come to a finish
Even a delicious cake or a good pie
Same with distressing and cruel times
Everything eventually reaches their goodbyes
So Ashley, goodbye
I hope my words reach you in good time
Write me sometime
So long Ashley, so long


Scheme ABCBDDXD EEXFFXX XGXXXAXBAAX AADXHBBH IXJJJCXBB AKXKXCCX AIGXX XLXXLMMX
Poetic Form
Metre 110 1111111 11101111 111111 111111 1111111 011111111001 010111 11111011 111101111 111101 111 11111 1111011101 1011111 011111 1111111 11010101 110111 110111101 1100010 111101101 11111011111 101111010011 1111110 011110 101111110 1110110 11111111101 1111111 1111011 11011111 1110111111 11111110101 10111011101 11111 11111101 111010 10111111101 1011010011 1111 1111111 11011 111111010 1111101 001101 11101 1110101111101 1110101011101 01101 101111 010101010 1111 11111 111101 111110111101 1111010 10001011011 110100101 10010001011 1101 111111011 111 111011
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 2,104
Words 435
Sentences 2
Stanzas 8
Stanza Lengths 8, 7, 11, 8, 9, 8, 5, 8
Lines Amount 64
Letters per line (avg) 26
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 206
Words per stanza (avg) 52

About this poem

Dear Ashley is an epistolary poem written to an imaginary friend going through difficulties in life and finding it hard to cope. The concept behind the poem is that at least some part of it can resonate with everyone as we all feel the struggles of life in one form or the other at some point in our lives.

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Written on March 03, 2018

Submitted by Ruthmahogany on December 08, 2023

2:12 min read
74

Ruth Mahogany Utsu

 · 1993 · Calabar

Ruth Mahogany is a multi-faceted artist with skills ranging from story-telling to music production and stage performances. While she continues to work with organizations and individuals to articulate complex ideas through engaging poems and stories, she has a growing catalogue of music on streaming sites, and a couple of spoken word poetry on Youtube. more…

All Ruth Mahogany Utsu poems | Ruth Mahogany Utsu Books

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