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The Darling Letters Summary & Analysis
by Carol Ann Duffy

The Darling Letters Summary & Analysis
by Carol Ann Duffy

  • Intro
  • Summary
  • Themes
  • Line-by-Line
    Explanations
  • Poetic
    Devices
  • Vocabulary &
    References
  • Form, Meter, &
    Rhyme Scheme
  • Speaker
  • Setting
  • Context
  • Resources
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  • “The Darling Letters” Introduction

    • "The Darling Letters," by British poet Carol Ann Duffy, is about the way that relationships may change over time and how people often hang on to emblems of past love long after things have ended. The poem's speaker takes old love letters out every now and then, despite finding their use of cutesy nicknames and fierce declarations of undying love a bit mortifying in hindsight. While the letters read differently now than they once did, the speaker is still drawn to them because they're a reminder of the intensity, hopefulness, and joy of being deeply in love. The poem was published in Duffy's 1990 collection, The Other Country.

  • “The Darling Letters” Summary

    • The speaker says that people sometimes hang on to their old love letters by tucking them away in dark shoeboxes. When people take the lid off of this box, their painful memories sputter out, like eyes emerging from the darkness and blinking as they adjust to the light. The letters are filled with evidence of their own past carelessness—and of the speaker's carelessness, too. They're filled with inside jokes that the speaker either doesn't get anymore or no longer finds funny, their punchlines awkwardly filling the pauses between sweet nothings. The speaker provides the setup of one such joke: the letter writer asks what clothes their lover is wearing.

      Then the punchline comes: the writer tells their reader, "Don't ever change" (punning on changing clothes and changing one's personality). The letters, the speaker continues, begin with affection but end with accusations and goodbyes. Despite all the time that's passed, the speaker's hands still quiver when they take the letters out. They press their fingers to the page and remember what they were dreaming of and hoping for when they first read these words—words like "Always." The speaker says that no one destroys these precious letters, which instead remain buried in those coffin-like shoeboxes.

      Seeing a pet name in a letter, the speaker notes that couples always have cutesy nicknames for each other that are embarrassing to think about later on, as though they were pseudonyms used when they killed someone way back when. The speaker reads a line in which an ex-lover professes that without the speaker's love, they'd positively die. Every now and then, the speaker says, when no one else is around, people take these letters out and re-read the familiar words, which make their blood pounding like a shovel digging up a corpse.

  • “The Darling Letters” Themes

    • Theme Nostalgia for Past Love

      Nostalgia for Past Love

      “The Darling Letters” explores the changing nature of relationships and the nostalgic allure of old love letters. People often stash such letters away long after a relationship has fizzled, the speaker says, pulling them out from time to time despite finding them both embarrassing and painful to revisit. Although the speaker recognizes that these letters no longer hold the same meaning they once did, they also refuse to part with them. The poem ultimately suggests that even as relationships change, people may hold onto mementos of lost love because they offer a taste of the passion and hope that once made them feel intensely alive.

      The speaker makes it clear that these letters are artifacts from another life: this relationship ran its course long ago, and the speaker isn’t the same person they were when they wrote/received these letters. The letters thus don’t read as they once did: the jokes seem corny or no longer make sense at all, and the speaker bristles at their former use of pet names like “Babykins.”

      The speaker seems even more mortified about how shameless and wild their desire once was. They say their “own recklessness” is “written all over” the letters and note phrases like “I’ll die without you” and “Don’t ever Change.” Yet even as the letters begin with such passionate declarations of everlasting devotion, they “end in recriminations” (or accusations). Reading them all in hindsight thus makes the speaker feel a bit silly; time has made the speaker’s former love seem naive and melodramatic.

      Even so, these letters still hold a certain power over the speaker. Though the speaker’s emotions have cooled, revisiting these letters stirs feelings of nostalgia for a love that once felt all-consuming. “Even now,” the speaker says, “the fist’s bud flowers / into trembling”: re-reading these letters unclenches the speaker’s hardened feelings, and the speaker “trace[s] each line and see[s] / the future then.”

      In other words, reading their ex-lover’s words allows the speaker to briefly relive the thrilling hopefulness and promise they once felt. Though they don’t re-read these “letters” often, when they do, their “heart thud[s] / like a spade on buried bones.” Remembering this old love is like digging up a corpse: they know that this relationship is firmly in the past, but revisiting these old proclamations of love and devotion nevertheless makes the speaker’s heart pound. And that, the poem suggests, is why "[n]obody burns" these emblems of past love: the letters are a reminder of what it feels like to be wildly alive.

      Where this theme appears in the poem:
      • Lines 1-18

  • Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “The Darling Letters”

    • Lines 1-3

      Some keep them ...
      ... My own...

      The poem begins with the speaker describing how "[s]ome" people "keep them" hidden away in "shoeboxes." From the poem's title, readers can assume that this "them" refers to the "Darling Letters." While the speaker hasn't yet said what, exactly, a darling letter is, the word "darling" implies that these are sentimental items—likely love letters. The fact that people keep such letters hidden away in a box, meanwhile, suggests two things:

      • People want to keep these letters safe (they're not shoved willy nilly in the back of a drawer, but placed into protective boxes).
      • People don't want to think about them. They keep the letters out of sight and out of mind—most of the time, at least.

      As the speaker says in the next line, people occasionally take these shoeboxes out of the darkness and revisit the "sore memories" within, the same way that someone might feel compelled to pick at a scab or prod an old bruise. Upon lifting the shoebox lid and exposing these memories, they seem to blink at the sudden brightness (think of how you might squint and blink when someone suddenly turns the light on in a dark room). The speaker is personifying the memories here, treating them as things that have a will and agency all their own. These letters, the poem implies, contain life.

      Next, readers learn why people tend to keep these letters hidden most of the time: reading them means confronting "their own recklessness." These letters, it seems, contain evidence of people's wilder, more careless younger selves. And in the time since the letters were written, their intended readers have changed and (ostensibly) matured; they're no longer as reckless as they once were.

      Notice how, in line 3, the poem also shifts out of the third person for the first time. While it began with the speaker referring only to "some" people"—effectively distancing themselves from things—they admit now that they're familiar with this process of revisiting the past; it's not just other people's recklessness, but "My own..." the speaker says. The italicization of "My own..." might suggest that the speaker is reading out a quotation from a letter (perhaps a sweet/sappy reference to one's beloved), but this phrase can be read as the speaker correcting themselves, moving from describing other people's experiences to admitting that they, too, have letters tucked away in shoeboxes.

      This poem is written in free verse, meaning it doesn't follow a regular meter or rhyme scheme. That being said, it is still quite lyrical! Note, for example, the alliteration of "lid lifts" and "recklessness written," which adds subtle music and intensity to the poem and helps to evoke the mixture of anxiety, anticipation, and excitement upon revisiting past relationships.

    • Lines 4-7

      Private jokes, no ...
      ...                                     Don't ever change.

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    • Lines 8-11

      They start with ...
      ... Always...

    • Lines 11-12

      Nobody burns them, ...
      ... their cardboard coffins.

    • Lines 13-15

      Babykins... ...
      ... alias, long ago.

    • Lines 15-18

      I'll die ...
      ... on buried bones.

  • “The Darling Letters” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

    • Alliteration

      Alliteration adds plenty of musicality and rhythm to the poem, emphasizing the speaker's nostalgia for the intense passion of young love.

      For instance, multiple alliterative phrases in the first stanza help build a sense of anticipation as the speaker pulls out a shoebox filled with old letters. As the "lid lifts," the speaker catches sight of "their own recklessness written all over them." The lilting /l/ sounds work well to evoke the gentle removal of the box's top, while the gritty /r/ sounds seem to capture the roughness of the speaker's younger love.

      In the next two lines, the quick patter of "pull their punchlines" and "fall flat" seems to at once suggest the elaborate prose of these letters and to evoke a kind of stutter, as if the "jokes" that once seemed so funny now feel awkward and ill-timed. And in the second stanza, /f/ and /tr/ alliteration brings a striking metaphor to life:

      [...] Even now, the fist's bud flowers
      into trembling, and the fingers trace each line and see

      The insistent /f/ sounds here draw the reader's ear to certain details: to the speaker's curled "fist," a sign of pent-up aggression, and to the way it begins to "flower[]," to gently and beautifully unclench. The stuttering /tr/ of "trembling" and "trace" might then evoke the very "trembling" being described: the way the speaker moves haltingly, hesitantly as they revisit this old love.

      Later, notice how the crisp /k/ sounds of "cardboard coffins" create a sharp, tight-lipped feel appropriate for a description of the letters being forever hidden away. Finally, the bold /b/ of the last line's "buried bones" is almost onomatopoeic, evoking both the "thudding" of the speaker's heart and the imagined thwack of a shovel against a grave.

      Where alliteration appears in the poem:
      • Line 2: “lid,” “lifts”
      • Line 3: “recklessness,” “written”
      • Line 4: “pull,” “punchlines”
      • Line 5: “fall,” “flat,” “What”
      • Line 6: “wearing”
      • Line 9: “fist's,” “flowers”
      • Line 10: “trembling,” “fingers,” “trace”
      • Line 11: “future”
      • Line 12: “cardboard,” “coffins”
      • Line 18: “buried,” “bones”

    • Consonance

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      Where consonance appears in the poem:
      • Line 2: “lid lifts”
      • Line 3: “recklessness written”
      • Line 4: “Private,” “jokes,” “comprehended,” “pull,” “punchlines”
      • Line 5: “fall flat,” “gaps,” “What”
      • Line 6: “wearing”
      • Line 8: “start,” “Darling,” “end in”
      • Lines 8-9: “recriminations, / absence, sense”
      • Line 9: “loss,” “fist's,” “bud,” “flowers”
      • Line 10: “trembling,” “fingers,” “trace”
      • Line 11: “future”
      • Line 12: “stiff,” “cardboard coffins”
      • Line 13: “Babykins”
      • Line 17: “thudding”
      • Line 18: “spade,” “buried bones”

    • Assonance

      Where assonance appears in the poem:
      • Line 2: “lid,” “lifts”
      • Line 5: “flat,” “gaps”
      • Line 8: “start,” “Darling”
      • Line 9: “absence,” “sense,” “now,” “flowers”
      • Line 12: “stiff in,” “coffins”
      • Line 13: “Babykins,” “strange,” “names”
      • Line 14: “make”
      • Line 16: “alone”
      • Line 18: “bones”

    • Asyndeton

      Where asyndeton appears in the poem:
      • Lines 4-5: “Private jokes, no longer comprehended, pull their punchlines, / fall flat in the gaps between the endearments.”
      • Lines 8-9: “They start with Darling; end in recriminations, / absence, sense of loss.”
      • Lines 9-11: “the fist's bud flowers / into trembling, the fingers trace each line and see / the future then”

    • Metaphor

      Where metaphor appears in the poem:
      • Line 2: “sore memories blinking out as the lid lifts,”
      • Lines 9-10: “Even now, the fist's bud flowers / into trembling,”
      • Line 12: “stiff in their cardboard coffins.”

    • Simile

      Where simile appears in the poem:
      • Lines 13-15: “We all had strange names / which make us blush, as though we'd murdered / someone under an alias, long ago.”
      • Lines 17-18: “the heart thudding / like a spade on buried bones.”

    • Enjambment

      Where enjambment appears in the poem:
      • Lines 5-6: “What / are”
      • Lines 9-10: “flowers / into”
      • Lines 10-11: “see / the”
      • Lines 13-14: “names / which”
      • Lines 14-15: “murdered / someone”
      • Lines 15-16: “die / without”
      • Lines 17-18: “thudding / like”

    • Caesura

      Where caesura appears in the poem:
      • Lines 3-3: “them. / My”
      • Line 4: “jokes, no,” “comprehended, pull”
      • Lines 5-5: “endearments. / What”
      • Line 8: “Darling; end”
      • Line 9: “absence, sense,” “loss. Even,” “now, the”
      • Line 10: “trembling, the”
      • Lines 11-11: “then. / Always...”
      • Line 12: “letters, stiff”
      • Lines 13-13: “Babykins... / We”
      • Line 14: “blush,”
      • Line 15: “alias, long”
      • Lines 15-15: “ago. / I'll”
      • Lines 16-16: “you. Die. / Once”
      • Line 16: “while, alone,”
      • Line 17: “again, the”

    • Hyperbole

      Where hyperbole appears in the poem:
      • Line 11: “Always...”
      • Lines 15-16: “I'll die / without you. Die.”

  • “The Darling Letters” Vocabulary

    Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

    • Recklessness
    • Punchlines
    • Comprehended
    • Endearments
    • Recriminations
    • Babykins
    • Alias
    • Spade
    Recklessness
    • (Location in poem: Line 3: “their own recklessness written all over them”)

      Failure to consider the consequences of one's actions; irresponsible behavior.

  • Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “The Darling Letters”

    • Form

      Though this is a free verse poem that doesn't use any traditional form (unlike, say, a sonnet or a villanelle), it does have some structure: its 18 lines are split into three sestets, or six-line stanzas.

      This adds a kind of firm backbone to the poem, one that perhaps mirrors that of the letters themselves; the letters are frozen in time, yet their contents still reliably make the speaker's hands tremble and their heart pound.

      The poem's lines are also fairly long and use plenty of enjambment, moving fluidly down the page in a way that fits right in with the speaker's meditative, nostalgic tone.

    • Meter

      As a free verse poem, "The Darling Letters" doesn't use a set meter. This is common for contemporary poetry, and here it works well with the speaker's thoughtful, reflective tone. The lines flow smoothly and conversationally, adding to the sense that the speaker is reflecting on the letters laid out before them at this very moment, filled with both contemplative nostalgia and heart-pounding anticipation.

    • Rhyme Scheme

      The poem is written in free verse and therefore doesn't use a rhyme scheme. As with the poem's lack of meter, this is relatively common for contemporary poems and here keeps things feeling conversational and unpredictable, as though the speaker is processing their thoughts in real time.

      The speaker bristles at the letters' use of pet names and melodramatic declarations of love and anger, so it also might make sense that the poem feels subtle and straightforward in terms of sound. Showy rhyme patterns might feel like something the speaker would have turned to in their "reckless[]" younger years. The lack of a rhyme scheme, by contrast, perhaps comes across as more grounded and mature.

  • “The Darling Letters” Speaker

    • The poem's speaker is someone revisiting love letters from a past relationship. The speaker keeps these letters hidden away most of the time, stashed "in shoeboxes away from the light." Every now and then, however, the speaker takes the letters out to re-read.

      It's not that the speaker is still in love with the writer of these letters. On the contrary, the poem makes it clear that the relationship is long over and that the speaker has changed quite a bit. Yet even as the letters now feel silly and sentimental—the "jokes" falling "flat" and the professions of undying love seeming over the top and naive—the speaker still feels moved: their hands still tremble and their "heart thud[s]" while reading these letters. That's because they offer a glimpse of the intense, hopeful emotions the speaker once felt. It's like they allow the speaker to go back in time for a moment and feel all those old, thrilling feelings again.

      Notice, too, how the pronouns shift throughout the poem: the poem begins with the speaker talking about how "some" people hide their old love letters, the speaker seeming to distance themselves from this process. Yet soon enough the speaker enters the poem in the first person, admitting in line 3 that the "recklessness" of these letters belongs to the speaker themselves: it is "My own..." the speaker says. And in the poem's final stanza, the speaker uses collective pronouns "we" and "us." The feelings described here are experienced by many, the poem thus argues: many people, the speaker included, feel a certain nostalgia for their past loves.

  • “The Darling Letters” Setting

    • The poem doesn't have a specific setting, though readers can imagine scene it describes easily enough: a person pulling an old shoebox out from a dark space—a drawer or the back of a closet, perhaps—lifting the lid, and then tracing their fingers along the old love letters inside. The other thing readers know is that the poem takes place long after these letters were written; the relationship they came from has clearly been over for some time.

      Such a scene might take place anywhere, really, and that's the point: the speaker believes that the experience they're describing is something a lot of people can identify with. Lots of people hang on to reminders of relationships that have ended, pulling them out once in a while to relive the feeling of being madly, hopefully in love. The lack of specific details when it comes to the poem's setting allows the reader to fill in the gaps: to imagine themselves in their own home doing the same thing.

  • Literary and Historical Context of “The Darling Letters”

      Literary Context

      "The Darling Letters" was published in Scottish poet Carol Ann Duffy's 1990 collection, The Other Country. This collection, Duffy's third, explores themes related to emigration, language, and the journey from childhood to adulthood. Such themes are reflected in "The Darling Letters," with its nostalgic longing for the intensity of (presumably young) love and its exploration of the ways that one's perspective can shift over time (implicitly, as one matures). Other poems in this collection such as "Originally" and "In Mrs Tilscher's Class" feature similarly thoughtful, poignant musings on time, change, and growing up.

      Duffy's poetry is known for being straightforward yet effective, accessible yet insightful. She often writes in free verse and uses relaxed, conversational language—characteristics on display in "The Darling Letters."

      This poem, like much of Duffy’s work, also falls under the umbrella of lyric poetry. It is musical despite its lack of meter and rhyme, and it expresses the speaker’s personal thoughts and feelings in order to illustrate broader themes. The majority of poems written in the latter half of the 20th century, as well as the beginning of the 21st century, belong to the lyric tradition.

      Duffy has been influenced by a broad range of poets, from American poet Sylvia Plath to Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. She served as Poet Laureate of Britain from 2009 to 2019, and she writes plays and children's books in addition to poetry.

      Historical Context

      "The Darling Letters" was published in 1990, but feels relatively timeless. While the speaker of the poem need not be interpreted as Duffy herself, it isn’t far-fetched to imagine that the poem is describing Duffy's personal experiences with changing romantic relationships and the nostalgia that hovers around past loves.

      While she now openly identifies as a lesbian, at the age of 16 Duffy entered what would become a 12-year relationship with the much older male poet Adrian Henri. Henri was a mentor and inspiration to the young Duffy, but he was also chronically unfaithful. The couple separated in 1982, and it’s possible that the speaker's simultaneous tenderness toward and embarrassment surrounding old love letters reflects Duffy’s own feelings about her relationship with Henri.

  • More “The Darling Letters” Resources

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