Gavin Zanoni
Dr. Crumley
English II.
13 April 2023
The Reflection of Mortality The poem “Abandoned Farmhouse” by Ted Kooser takes place on an abandoned farm. A clear sense of desertion and hurried abandonment is both seen and felt throughout the entirety of the poem . Through sensory descriptions and alliteration the speaker examines humanities’ transient and fleeting nature. The poem uses large amounts of sensory details to be able to help the reader to gain an insight into the lives of the people that had formerly lived on the farm. A message of abandonment is established very early within the poem, with the speaker saying things such as, “his shoes / on a pile of broken dishes by the house” (ll. 2-3) or “says the Bible with
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One example of this is through the Bible with the “broke[n] back” (ll. 5). Referring to the Bible with a broken back brings attention to the book. It shows how humanity had a temporary use for the item then left it. The person who lived there had an impermanent direct relation with the scriptures then staying true to humanities’ core nature did not indefinitely stay with the Bible. Another example of man’s temporary use of things is seen in the second stanza when the speaker describes a sandbox that the farmer had made for the children. The play area is described as being “made from a tractor tire” and is personified by the speaker by suggesting that the sandbox is “say[ing]” things (ll. 12). The speaker stating that the play area is almost human-like by figuratively using speech is emblematic of man's own mortality. The sandbox itself used materials from the world around it to “live” and had an effect on the people/area surrounding it. However its life ended when the people stopped using it and abandoned it. This represents the temporary nature of humans and how even though at their core they are transient, the effect on their surroundings will be seen long after their own