My Father's Love Letters

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 2001

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter: Free Verse

“My Father’s Love Letters” does not follow a prescribed form or meter, making it a free verse poem. Komunyakaa uses the flexibility of free verse to give the poem a musical quality, especially in terms of line length. The lines range from lengthy ones like Line 3, comprised of twelve syllables, to a mere four syllables in Line 24. Varying line lengths in this way lends a sense of control over the pacing of the poem and add emphasis to key details. For instance, note the variation in the following lines:

The gleam of a five-pound wedge

On the concrete floor

Pulled a sunset

Through the doorway of his toolshed (Lines 22-25).

In these lines, Komunyakaa creates a slower, more deliberate pace with the first two lines, culminating in the poem’s shortest line—“Pulled a sunset” (Line 24)—which makes the contrast with Line 25 more significant. In this way, Komunyakaa creates a cadence that makes up for the lack of a consistent form and meter with its own variable rhythm.

End-Stopped Lines and Enjambment

Just as the poem eschews a regular form and meter, “My Father’s Love Letters” also relies on variation in line endings. Only thirteen of the poems thirty-six lines are end-stopped, which means that less than half of the lines end in some form of punctuation. Of these end-stopped lines, only six conclude with the decisiveness of a period. The remaining twenty-three lines end with no punctuation, making them enjambed. This variety, in conjunction with the poem’s free verse style, allows Komunyakaa to vary the pace and rhythm of his lines.

For instance, many of the lines in the first half of the poem flow from one to the next almost seamlessly, as in the lines,

Somehow I was happy

She had gone, & sometimes wanted

To slip in a reminder, how Mary Lou

Williams’ “Polka Dots & Moonbeams”

Never made the swelling go down (Lines 7-11).

The decisiveness of the period after “go down” (Line 11) mirrors the sound of a chord that might have come from beneath a pianist’s fingers. The significance of this positioning more emphatic thanks to the four enjambed lines prior to it. Even with the use of internal punctuation in the form of commas in Lines 8 and 9, the lines propel the reader forward until the dramatic conclusion of the thought.

By way of contrast, consider Lines 31-36:

This man,

Who stole roses & hyacinth

For his yard, would stand there

With eyes closed & fists balled,

Laboring over a simple word, almost

Redeemed by what he tried to say.

These six lines are made up of equal numbers of end-stopped and enjambed lines. Komunyakaa uses the punctuation to slow down the reader and to signal that the end of a thought is in sight. Rather than tumbling toward the ending as he would have had he concluded with Lines 7-11, he includes a series of shorter phrases, set off with commas, that provide more pauses. Including the word “almost” in Line 35 instead of moving it to Line 36, thereby creating another end-stopped line, leaves readers lingering on that key word for another second before our eyes track to the next, and final, line.

The use of so much variation in line endings allows Komunyakaa to speed up and slow down the pace just as a jazz musician like Williams might do. This varied rhythm adds to the pleasure of the poem while also adding emphasis to key words and lines.

Narrative Poetry

Komunyakaa’s speaker focuses primarily on what he and his father see and do in this narrative poem. Even when the speaker focuses his attention on his mother, he does so in service to the characterization of his father. One of the hallmarks of narrative is character description, and the speaker of this poem provides a clear picture of his father. The reader learns that he works in a “mill” (Line 2), that he is abusive toward the mother, and that

His carpenter’s apron always bulged

With old nails a claw hammer

Looped at his side & extension cords

Coiled around his feet (Lines 12-15).

The speaker later describes the father’s prowess at building and his habit of stealing “roses & hyacinth / For his yard” (Lines 32-33).

Similarly, while the mother is absent throughout the poem, the speaker conveys significant details about her: the “postcards of desert flowers” (Line 4) she sends, her love of “Mary Lou / Williams’ ‘Polka Dots & Moonbeams’” (Lines 9-10), and her potential reaction to the letters the son transcribes for his father.

The final aspect of Komunyakaa’s narrative style involves his use of setting. The speaker describes the toolshed as a place of “quiet brutality / of voltage meters & pipe threaders” (Lines 19-20) where