With quill and silver knife
She carved a poison pen
Wrote to her lover's wife
"Your husband's seed has fed my flesh"

As if a leper's face
That tainted letter graced
The wife with choke-stone throat
Ran to the day with tear-blind eyes

Impaled on nails of ice
And raked with emerald fire
The wife with soul of snow
With steady hands begins to write

"I'm still, I need no life
To serve on boys and men
What's mine was yours is dead
I take my leave of mortal flesh"


Lyrics submitted by ruben

The Letters Lyrics as written by Robert Fripp Peter John Sinfield

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group

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The Letters song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    The four songs of the album "Islands" are four different perspectives on love. The first depicts romantic love, the second, this one, depicts vindictive and jealous love, the third, playful sexuality, and the final song depicts the universal love supporting everyone. Each one of these songs has a different prevailing emotional mood, with this song having the most intense expressions of emotion.

    "The Letters" refers to the two letters or notes written in this song: the first being an evil and vindictive note written by the "other woman" having an affair with a married man, to the man's wife. The second letter is the suicide note written by the wife after she receives the first letter.

    The first two lines indicate the evil nature of the first letter by the words "poison pen." The second verse indicates the wife's extreme emotional reaction to her husband's infidelity. The final two lines indicate the wife's death by her own hand.

    The extremely strong emotions of the characters involved are depicted by the harsh and atonal guitar and sax solos in the recording.

    marcdon February 27, 2008   Link

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