Compare the themes of the poems "Little Old Letter" (Langston Hughes) and "Since You Went Away" (James Weldon Johnson).

Both of the poems, Langston Hughes' "Little Old Letter,"
and James Weldon Johnson's "Since You Went Away," deal with the subject of loss.
However, the poems are very different in tone.

Whereas
Johnson writes romantic verse listing all the many ways life has changed for the speaker
since the woman he loves has left him, Hughes' poem is much darker and its impact almost
leaves one breathless.

"Since You Went Away" deals with
loss as compared to losing the light from stars and sun. It continues with saying the
sky is not as beautiful, and his loss of her leaves him lacking purpose, direction. Then
he says that nothing is right, the days are long, and even the birds don't sing anymore.
He finishes by saying that his life is a mess since she left. He cries and sighs for
her.

Perhaps the rhyme helps keep the poem from becoming
too dark: "bright," "light," "right" are not heavy words. "Blue," "you" and "do" are not
used to convey a sense of devastation. And even though it seems his feelings for his
lost love are true, the sun will come up again tomorrow for the speaker, and life will
go on for him.

In "Little Old Letter," there is a rhyme as
well, but it does not have a "sing-song" movement, almost like a child's swing, as
Johnson's poem does. The title is deceptive. Hughes does not prepare us for what is to
come. In fact, he describes the poem's subject as a wee, small thing, seeming to be of
no real consequence, until we read on.

Though we never
learn the contents of the letter, the speaker conveys clearly the essence of its
contents. He goes to the mailbox to look for a letter; in itself, this is a daily
routine and nothing of special significance. The first clue is found in the fourth line
"made me turn right pale." Immediately we know something is wrong: the letter is the
source of dismay.

The second stanza repeats the sense that
this letter was tiny, seemingly insignificant: "Wasn't even one page long." But the
speaker continues with a dramatic and dark image: "But it made me wish / I was in my
grave and gone." The speaker, upon reading the letter, wishes he were
dead.

The third stanza is slightly anti-climatic: the
letter's recipient turns it over, but finds no further explanation, nothing to take the
sting from the words or provide him with any relief.  He goes on to say that he has
never been so lonely since the day he was born.

The final
stanza, however, cuts like a razor: the metaphor here compares a pencil and pen to a gun
or knife, insisting that both are equally deadly if one wants to take a
life.

Both poems have the common theme of a loss of love.
Johnson's poem leaves the reader with a sense of his sadness, but also of his ability to
cope.

Hughes' poem uses "emotionally-charged words" (as I
call them) such as "pale," "grave," "lonesome," and phrases "no gun or knife" and "Can
take a person's life." At the end of his poem, he leaves the reader with the sense that
he is hopeless, sees no future, wishes he were dead, and acknowledges that 'the word is
just as mighty as the sword' (or gun or knife).