The Illiterate Literary Elements

The narrator is either William Meredith or an unnamed protagonist, speaking from the first person to another person (in the second person), waxing eloquent about his (or perhaps her) goodness.

Sonnet, with an unusual "rhyme scheme" that involves the actual repetition of words rather than rhyming syllables (ABBACDDC EFGEFG)

Almost the entire poem is an extended simile comparing the author to an illiterate man who has received a letter but does not know its contents. He is afraid to discover what it contains, and almost prefers the tremulous sense of mystery it affords him while unopened.

There is no assonance in the poem by its strict definition, but several lines include multiple repetitions of a single vowel sound that create a sort of vague pattern (e.g. "...this was because the man...", repeating the "ah" sound).

The irony of an illiterate man receiving a letter; he might not actually be illiterate, just willfully ignorant of the letter's contents, but the terminology still evokes the irony that he will never be able to read the contents of the letter someone has taken the effort to send to him.

Modern, romantic, sonnets

Unspecified, but likely modern-day

Respectful, excited, almost worshipful in expression of affection

Protagonist: the speaker, who compares himself to a man unable to read a letter addressed to him. Antagonist: his feelings of fear and inhibition, and the recipient's possible change of favor.

The speaker cannot adequately express his affection for his object, likening his willful ignorance to a man who is unable to read a letter addressed to him but finds pleasure in the possibilities of the unknown.

The poet ends his poem with a direct appeal to the reader: "What would you call his feeling for the words / That keep him rich and orphaned and beloved?" This climax brings a personal import onto the poem, relating this man's pleasures to those of his reader.

The second line, in which Meredith says that one might think that the man's hesitation is due to the unfamiliar penmanship, foreshadows the next line, where he explains that it is actually the fact that he has never received a letter before.

The simile of the illiterate man turning the letter over in his hand might be considered understatement; the analogy is admittedly one that lacks much real action or passion, which is more than likely present in the narrator's appreciation of his subject's goodness.

The "dark girl" referenced in line 11 is an allusion to the sonnets of Shakespeare, many of which are addressed to a similar "dark girl" who may have, in fact, been a boy.

Meredith also perhaps alludes to the "goodness" of some real-life person, but it is ultimately unclear.

lines 3-4: "And you might think this was because the hand / Was unfamiliar" "Hand" in this case is intended to mean "handwriting" or "penmanship."

"The words / That keep him rich and orphaned and beloved?" (ln 13-14)

"The words / That keep him rich and orphaned and beloved?" (lines 13-14) These words make him inwardly feel safe and loved, but they don't actually keep him rich, orphaned, or beloved.

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