For some experience, would like to implement "e-mail client" on Linux machine

For some experience, would like to implement "e-mail client (text
based)" on Linux machine using SMTP for sending an e-mail and POP3 for
receiving mail. This is purely simple application, using command line
interface. will it be Ok, if I use SMTP and POP3 protocols, I would
liek to implement using sockets, Will it work If I do using sockets?.

any othe rthoughts how can I implemnt, this I would like to do for some
experience in Linux socket programming, is there any other good
examples to get some hands on experience in Linux socket prog?. Thanks