A poem is not decoration added to courtship but the actual channel through which the bond is formed, tested, and repaired; sending a skillful waka at the right moment is the relationship move itself. The quality and timing of a reply are read as evidence of feeling and worth.
Internal emotional states (hesitation, jealousy, longing, fear of abandonment) are expressed indirectly through images of dew, moonlight, autumn, and blossoms rather than stated plainly. The reader learns to decode a lover's commitment and anxiety from which natural image they choose and how they vary a conventional one.
The affair unfolds under the pressure of rumor and rank: the woman fears being gossiped about and doubts a prince's constancy, while his bringing her into his household provokes his principal wife's departure. Private feeling is continually constrained and partly determined by the surrounding court's surveillance and status rules.