The Illiterate

“A Wasteland Sonnet” by William Meredith (1953)

This sonnet was published in the August 1953 issue of Poetry Magazine, alongside “The Illiterate.” The poems share the sonnet form, although “A Wasteland Sonnet” is written with the rhyme scheme ABAB ABAB CDE CDE, with significant off-rhyming, a different variation on the Petrarchan sonnet than “The Illiterate.” This poem also has allusions to a literary work, poet T. S. Eliot’s The Waste land and his view of the myth of the Fisher King. Its subject matter is again about love. Like “The Illiterate,” its conclusion includes a sentiment that acts as plea, “Stay with me just this lifetime, or until / [no] one can maim me, even I myself” (Lines 13-14).

“Starlight” by William Meredith (1958)

This poem appears in the same collection as “The Illiterate,” and uses the ABABCC rhyme scheme. Looking at the sky, the speaker wonders at the stars and the naming of constellations, as well as man’s hubris, and how man may be “dark and ignorant, / Unable to see here what our forebears saw” (Lines 7-8). In the conclusion, the speaker notes that if they could name a constellation, it would be easy to understand.