Analysis of The Letters
Leonard Cohen 1934 (Westmount) – 2016 (Los Angeles, California)
You never liked to get
The letters that I sent.
But now you've got the gist
Of what my letters meant.
You're reading them again,
The ones you didn't burn.
You press them to your lips,
My pages of concern.
I said there'd been a flood.
I said there's nothing left.
I hoped that you would come.
I gave you my address.
Your story was so long,
The plot was so intense,
It took you years to cross
The lines of self-defence.
The wounded forms appear:
the loss, the full extent;
and simple kindness here,
the solitude of strength.
You walk into my room.
You sit there at my desk,
Begin your letter to
The one who's coming next.
Scheme | XAXA XBXB XXXX XCXC XAXX XXXX |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (50%) |
Metre | 110111 010111 111101 111101 110101 011101 111111 110101 111101 111101 111111 11111 110111 011101 111111 011101 010101 010101 010101 01011 110111 111111 011101 011101 |
Closest metre | Iambic trimeter |
Characters | 597 |
Words | 119 |
Sentences | 12 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 24 |
Letters per line (avg) | 20 |
Words per line (avg) | 5 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 79 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 20 |
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"The Letters" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/53648/the-letters>.
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