The Illiterate

by William Meredith
p. 111

This poem is incredible at messing with your emotions and how you feel. Meredith puts you into the poem immediately, as you're sitting there in a room "Touching your goodness," whatever that may be, with a man holding a letter. It still seems though as if you remain in the poem as it continues, but not as "you," but rather as "I." Right after that first comma, Meredith puts you into the position as the "illiterate" man, and places all the things he feels upon you, the reader. You can feel his unfamiliarity, fear, confusion, curiosity, and pride.

The best thing to this poem, however, is its ending: the question Meredith asks of the illiterate man's feeling for the words he can't read. Words that could reveal wealth, death, or love. Meredith asks "What would you call his feeling...," however, personally, I can't describe that feeling with words. For me, that feeling would be one that is sad and depressed. But this is what's great about this poem: that feeling could be anything for anybody.