Figurative Language In Abandoned Farmhouse By Ted Kooser

Ted Kooser is a lifelong Midwesterner, who worked in the insurance business and wrote on the side. He was named Poet Laureate of the United States in 2004. He uses a lot of imagery and figurative language in his poem to get the theme across to the reader. In addition to these two things he also has some sound devices and form. This is why the poem “Abandoned Farmhouse” by Ted Kooser is the best poem to read ever.
The theme of this poem is, failure can be seen in your action even after you have left. Along with this theme there are others, such as abandonment and different way of seeing. Kooser writes that “ he was not a farmer/money was scarce”(13-19). Given that the fact that the man lived with his family in a barn on a farm, his inability to farm could well translate to an inability to be a breadwinner. This may have led to a sense of failure or unhappiness in the father/husband. By using “ the weed-choked yard”(18) this image implies the theme of abandonment, whether physical absence or from the abandonment that took place while the family was living there. A person can be physically present

The author likes to use personification as a main type of figurative language. “A woman lives with him, says the bedroom wall”( 9). This line takes the wall and gives it a human capability of talking. in the setting of the poem the times were rough and the author uses personification to bring that to light. “And the winters cold, says the rags in the window frames”(15). this again takes an inanimate object and gives it human qualities. Without the use of personification the author could not get the them across to the readers. The author takes the bad in the poem and exemplifies it by saying “Something went wrong, says the empty house”(17). The house is telling us that something happened and it was not a good thing. In addition to the theme, figurative language is the reason this poem is