The Burned Letter
The Burned Letter - meaning Summary
Burning a Love Letter
A speaker obeys a lover's wish and burns a cherished love letter, narrating the act and its emotional aftermath. The poem focuses on the physical details of combustion—the melting seal, blackened pages, rising smoke—as a symbol of finality and loss. The speaker experiences both resignation and acute sorrow; the ashes become a paradoxical consolation that preserves memory even as the written proof is destroyed. Tone is elegiac and intimate.
Read Complete AnalysesFarewell, Letter of Love! farewell: it’s her desire. How long did I delay! How long refused, in ire, I to destroy the single joy of mine!... Enough! The time has come. Burn, scripts of love divine. I’m ready; nothing else can call for my sad soul… Now the greedy flame is touching its form whole… A minute!… it is flamed and blazing – smoke, light, With my bitter laments, is flying of my sight. And now the ring’s stamp forfeited its form previous – It’s boiling – the seal wax… O, Providence of Heavens! That’s all! The letter’s leaves are twisted, now black; On their light ashes their well known track Is whitening… My heart is squeezed. Oh, dear ashes, In my sad destiny, my poor consolations, Forever lie on breast, so fully, fully wracked… Translated by Yevgeny Bonver
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