Arab British Academy for Higher Education
Letters
Now we come to the last Section in this Lesson, and probably the most
useful: Letters.
We all at some time or other have to write letters, though less one has to
admit than in the past, thanks to the telephone and voice-mail. It is so easy
these days to lift the phone and send a message, that to go through the
slower process of actually writing a letter has become if not impossible, at
least very difficult for many!
To introduce this Section and put you in a more cheerful state of mind than
the thought of writing letters might possibly cause you, here is part of Night
Mail by the great poet, W.H. Auden; this famous poem accompanied the film
documentary to the Post Office, Night Mail.
We will not study the poem in great detail here, it is a very easy and
entertaining poem so it can be read without effort. But we will have another
look at some well known poems later in this Course!
Night Mail
Letters of thanks, letters from banks,
Letters of joy from girl and boy,
Receipted bills and invitations
To inspect new stock or visit relations,
And applications for situations
And timid lovers’ declarations
And gossip, gossip from all the nations,
News circumstantial, news financial,
Letters with holiday snaps to enlarge in,
Letters with faces scrawled in the margin,
Letters from uncles, cousins, and aunts,
Letters to Scotland from the South of France,
Letters of condolence to Highlands and Lowlands,
Notes from overseas to Hebrides Written on paper of every hue,
The pink, the violet, the white and the blue.
W.H.Auden
(99 Words)
Before we go on to some examples of letters you may be expected or like to
write, let us have a quick look at Auden’s excellent poem, used as the
background to a film documentary as far back as 1936 for the Post Office
(The night journey of the Mail Train from London to Glasgow). The film itself
remains a Classic (Words by W.H. Auden and music by Benjamin Britten) so
if you get the chance to see it on television or video, by no means miss a
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golden opportunity.
Night Mail
The extract quoted imitates the sound of the train as it careers northwards
with its precious and multifarious (extremely varied) cargo. You can see the
verse has a basis of rhyme, some of it internal (within the lines of the poem);
but not completely, and the style is very mixed, in keeping with the goods
being carried.
Auden is trying to show with his poem’s view of the letters on the train their
universality, how they reflect the wider world, its hopes, despairs, joys,
misfortunes, in fact everything, from the banks’ messages to their customers,
to the heart-breaking pleas of nervous young lovers… A wonderful, and to
my mind even better, a most memorable poem, being not too difficult to be
understood by everyone!
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