Why do you sit there on the floor so quiet and silent, tell me,
mother dear?
The rain is coming in through the open window, making you all
wet, and you don't mind it.
Do you hear the gong striking four? It is time for my brother
to come home from school.
What has happened to you that you look so strange?
Haven't you got a letter from father today?
I saw the postman bringing letters in his bag for almost
everybody in the town.
Only father's letters he keeps to read himself. I am sure the
postman is a wicked man.
But don't be unhappy about that, mother dear.
Tomorrow is market day in the next village. You ask your maid
to buy some pens and papers.
I myself will write all father's letters; you will not find
a single mistake.
I shall write from A right up to K.
But, mother, why do you smile?
You don't believe that I can write as nicely as father does!
But I shall rule my paper carefully, and write all the letters
beautifully big.
When I finish my writing do you think I shall be so foolish
as father and drop it into the horrid postman's bag?
I shall bring it to you myself without waiting, and letter by
letter help you to read my writing.
I know the postman does not like to give you the really nice
letters.
TITLE: The Wicked Postman leads me to believe that it is a man who delivers mail who has committed some sort of treacherous crime.

PARAPHRASE: The son first questions his mother as to why she is slumped out in the rain waiting for an unsent letter from her husband. The speaker then reminds the mother that his brother will be coming home soon, and that the wicked postman keeps his father's letters all to himself, instead of delivering them. He then tries to cheer up his mother by claiming that he will go to the market and buy a pen and paper and write her letters as nicely as his father does. He then states he won't be foolish and give the letters to the wicked postman, instead bring them to her himself. He finishes by saying the postman doesn't like to give the mother the nice letters.

ATTITUDE/TONE: The tone of the poem is one of seriousness but also the love and support of the son for the mother.

SHIFTS: There is a shift after "I am sure the postman is a wicked man." Before then, the son questions the mother desperately as to why she is upset that she hasn't gotten a letter from the father. After that line, however, the son takes matters into his own hands and decides that he will write letters in the place of his father to his mother, only he will think it out better and give her the letters in person rather than relying on the wicked postman.

TITLE (2nd look): The Wicked Postman now seems like empty reassurance by the son. His mother is very upset by the lack of letters from the father, so the son thinks of any excuse he can to justify why she hasn't received a letter from her husband. He states that the postman is wicked and therefore, he will take over the letter writing, when realistically the father probably hasn't been sending any letters. The son needs someone to blame, so the postman becomes the scapegoat.

THEME: We should not project our problems onto innocent people, rather we should blame the people who are the source of our problems and then move on from our problems and grow as people.