Langston Hughes's 'Letter' is a brief verse epistle, or letter poem, from Joe to his Mama which deploys the rhetoric and devices of letter-writing for emotional effect. Like a letter, it opens with a salutation: 'Dear Mama'; it closes with a subscription and signature: 'Your son baby/ Respectfully as ever, / Joe'; and the contents are positioned in between. The purpose is simple: Joe writes to send money to his mother. Five dollars is not much he admits, but it is what he can afford. He presents his gift as a representation of his affection; he relays his girlfriend's best wishes and her desire to meet his Mama; and he describes the weather. Hughes's poem exhibits the letter-writer's desire tinged with sadness to maintain the warmth of face-to-face familiarities in spite of distance.