The Illiterate

“The Illiterate” is an Italian sonnet written by American poet William Meredith, first published in Poetry Magazine in 1953. The poem was then included in Meredith’s third collection, The Open Sea and Other Poems (1958). It also appeared in his two subsequent collections of new and selected poems, Partial Accounts (1987)—which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry—and Effort at Speech (1997)—which won the National Book Award. “The Illiterate,” which addresses one’s fears about love and its potential, is one of Meredith’s most famous and anthologized poems. The poem shows Meredith’s noted ease at maintaining form while still using contemporary speech.

While “The Illiterate” has several meanings, poet Jason Schneiderman points out that it is notable for being a gay love poem written “when same sex desire was heavily policed and criminalized” (See: Further Reading & Resources). Meredith’s sexual orientation was later widely acknowledged, and he became the first gay Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, serving from 1978-1980. This interpretation, along with the poem’s versatility to be read in multiple ways, gives “The Illiterate” an important place in the poetic canon of American literature.

Content Warning: The poem’s title references an outdated term for a learning/reading disability.