A Close Reading Essay On Mail Call By Randall Jarrell
A Close Reading Essay of the Poem:
“Mail Call”
By Randall Jarrell
In Randall Jarrell’s poem; “Hope”, the poem reads, “The spirit killeth, but the letter giveth life” (1). A letter maybe only words and thoughts on a piece of paper to some but to others: like the soldiers in “Mail Call, a letter is a sense of hope but only if the letter contains something good. In the poem, “Hope”, Randall Jarrell tells how one goes about living their life day by day, never changing. He refers to week as a hand being dealt the same cards and the same hand. The only thing that changing is: when the Mailman comes and brings a letter.
One never knows what life is going to bring or what the letter’s going to say. It’s as though one is asking for disappointment.
“Mail Call”
By Randall Jarrell
In Randall Jarrell’s poem; “Hope”, the poem reads, “The spirit killeth, but the letter giveth life” (1). A letter maybe only words and thoughts on a piece of paper to some but to others: like the soldiers in “Mail Call, a letter is a sense of hope but only if the letter contains something good. In the poem, “Hope”, Randall Jarrell tells how one goes about living their life day by day, never changing. He refers to week as a hand being dealt the same cards and the same hand. The only thing that changing is: when the Mailman comes and brings a letter.
One never knows what life is going to bring or what the letter’s going to say. It’s as though one is asking for disappointment.