The Illiterate

The poem begins with the speaker “touching [the] goodness” (Line 1) of another person, whom they begin to talk to in the poem. The physical encounter between them—and its effect on the speaker—feels different. The speaker tries to articulate this emotional experience by comparing themselves to someone who is “illiterate,” an outdated term that defines one who cannot read written words or who is unaware of a certain activity. The speaker cannot yet interpret what this physical encounter with the unidentified addressee means, even though they can label the addressee as having “goodness” (Line 1).

The speaker imagines that they are “a man / [w]ho turns a letter over in his hand” (Line 2). The speaker equates themselves to the unaware individual and their touch of the addressee as a missive to be examined and understood. At first, the speaker says the addressee might assume that “this was because the hand / [w]as unfamiliar” (Lines 3-4), suggesting that the spark created from touch isn’t something previously experienced. However, the speaker suggests it is even deeper than that because “the man / [h]as never had a letter from anyone” (Lines 4-5). Here, it’s clear that the speaker feels they have never been in the presence of someone who has this kind of “goodness” (Line 1) in the entirety of their experience.