The Love Letter - an Art Form?

When sitting down one evening with the intent of writing a love letter, a realization occurred that the love letter is almost a genre all by itself.

Another realization soon followed that a love letter should contain a few necessary components in order for it to be true to its form. For example, the piece should describe as detailed as possible the true feelings for the beloved. The letter should also contain a shared moment that the beloved can relate to and share in those feelings of that particular time…a shared experience. The writer should by all accounts be truthful about their love because lies have a way of being found out or at least will come off as false to your beloved.

Really, the love letter walks a slippery tight rope, that is to say, there is a very fine line between true emotions and sentimentality or in the worst case, mawkishness. To be sure, the writer should always attempt to be themselves and not try to be a Shelly or Lord Byron, writing like a 19th century Romantic poet, because without question, even the best of writer’s will fail to pull it off. Why? Because know one writes like Byron anymore and the writer will sound like a lame lunatic. The key to writing a good love letter is to be totally you, and not write any romantic clichés like ‘the moon glistened from your eyes’ or ‘my heart beats like a thousand drums when you are near” or ‘my knees buckled when you walked into the room’ or ‘our souls have become one’, you get the point, stay entirely away from over used superlatives and write what you feel about the beloved.

For many, many years, the love letter has been an industry. Particularly for returning soldiers or seaman, who want to write a love letter to their wife, girlfriend or potential lover. One of my favourite Beat writers, Jack Kerouac, the famous author of ‘On the Road’, while attending Columbia University in New York, would sit in a particular bar and soon became known as the ‘love letter writer’. Word got around the traps that young Jack could write one hell of a love letter, and would only charge $5 per page. Kerouac would ask a few questions, collaborating with his client, and write a tailored letter just for them. As the legend goes, more often than not, the letter had been successful, meaning, it attained the result intended by the client – they got the girl.

In my own experience this is an unusual set-up, destined to fail. Why? Because the one you’re writing to will know that you can’t write like a Jack Kerouac and will someday ask you to do it again. If truly pressed, you’ll try and, well…

The love letter, when written from the heart, devoid of all clichés, and honest, will succeed no matter how terrible the grammar or spelling…if she/he loves you, they’ll at least appreciate the gesture because most people that I‘ve met enjoy a little romance from time to time.

My love letter finally got written and the reaction made it seem to be a success.

Time will tell.