This Is My Letter to the World Essay Questions

How does the speaker portray herself?

The speaker shows herself to be lonely but determined over the course of this short poem. She immediately notes (with some palpable degree of hurt) that the world has never tried to reach out to or understand her, but she is still attempting to bridge that gap. The poem is set up as both an appeal and an explanation. The speaker explains her fascination with nature and her efforts to decipher its "message." She ties these two ideas together in the closing by expressing her wish that her "countrymen" judge her more generously, based on their appreciation for nature. To the end, she makes no apologies for the way she is, but does try to offer insight to those around her.

Why does the speaker use the phrase "letter to the world" to describe her poem?

The speaker writes that this poem is her "letter to the world" because it clearly frames her intentions and hopes for this text. The poem is a "letter" to the speaker's community, in which she tries to justify her artistic goals and appeal to their sympathy. The importance of this framing becomes clear in the second line when the speaker states that she has never received an equivalent letter from her "world," meaning that she is offering this explanation because no one has taken the time to try to better sympathize with her. The poem being a letter is important to its central themes of loneliness and communication as it concretizes the way in which she is delivering this message.