William Meredith wrote a wide collection of well-known poems throughout his life. Meredith was highly praised for his work and was given the title Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. A great deal of his time was spent in the US Navy as a pilot where he was inspired to write consistently. And then came the time right before he wrote the poem The Illiterate. Meredith suffered a stroke in 1983 which left him incapable of expressing his thoughts, a crucial aspect that all poets possess. Expressive aphasia is what he was diagnosed with post-stroke, which includes side effects such as; speaking in short, grammatically incorrect sentences, loss of fine motor skills, and loss of the ability to write and read at a higher level of thinking.
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When looking at the title of the poem, The Illiterate, it gives away quite a bit of information and insight into what the poem is about and the meaning behind the poem (being illiterate means you are unable to read or write, which is interpreted as unintelligent by many). You can then infer that the poem is going to tell a story about someone who is illiterate and will describe how they …show more content…
Verses six and seven (and now he is afraid of what it means) contain words such as afraid and ashamed which blatantly conveys the mood of ashamed embarrassment over being illiterate. Taking a look at stanza two, the mood slowly progresses to more uplifting with each new verse added to the sonnet. The stanza begins with contemplations of the letter’s contents. It begins with the idea that his uncle may have left him his farm under his name which is a leap of faith to keep his spirits high. However it then takes a turn as he wonders if his parents had died. He would have no means of knowing if this were true or not, but is uplifted by the thought that maybe an old lover had written him, wanting to get things started again between the two of them. The thought of not knowing what the true contents of the letter is baffling that such a simple task can be so challenging and impossible for some to obtain and accomplish. This can relate back to the theme of appreciating the little capabilities you obtain because Meredith goes more into depth about how irritating it is to not be able to read the contents of the letter. He is showing us a preview of what the life of an
When looking at the title of the poem, The Illiterate, it gives away quite a bit of information and insight into what the poem is about and the meaning behind the poem (being illiterate means you are unable to read or write, which is interpreted as unintelligent by many). You can then infer that the poem is going to tell a story about someone who is illiterate and will describe how they …show more content…
Verses six and seven (and now he is afraid of what it means) contain words such as afraid and ashamed which blatantly conveys the mood of ashamed embarrassment over being illiterate. Taking a look at stanza two, the mood slowly progresses to more uplifting with each new verse added to the sonnet. The stanza begins with contemplations of the letter’s contents. It begins with the idea that his uncle may have left him his farm under his name which is a leap of faith to keep his spirits high. However it then takes a turn as he wonders if his parents had died. He would have no means of knowing if this were true or not, but is uplifted by the thought that maybe an old lover had written him, wanting to get things started again between the two of them. The thought of not knowing what the true contents of the letter is baffling that such a simple task can be so challenging and impossible for some to obtain and accomplish. This can relate back to the theme of appreciating the little capabilities you obtain because Meredith goes more into depth about how irritating it is to not be able to read the contents of the letter. He is showing us a preview of what the life of an