ipl-logo

Summary Of Abandoned Farmhouse By Ted Kooser

785 Words4 Pages

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 …show more content…

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

Show More
Related
291 Words | 2 Pages

By using the figurative language of alliteration, allusion, and personification in the poem “ New Day’s Lyric”, author Amanda Gorman emphasizes the theme of unity in today’s society. Amanda Gorman uses alliteration of repeating the same sound in lines to show unity. In line 5 of the poem states “Torn, we come to tens.” This illustrates alliteration by repeating the t sound the author puts more emphasis on words showing unity.

Read More
384 Words | 2 Pages

Have you ever really thought about how vital dirt is? Many people seem to look past its importance. In the poem “Ode to Dirt” by Sharon Olds, the speaker initially feels terrible for ignoring the dirt, then turns into acknowledging it. Old uses strong diction and figurative language such as personification to show the speaker's apologetic yet celebratory attitude towards the dirt.

Read More
742 Words | 3 Pages

He could imagine his deception of this town “nestled in a paper landscape,” (Collins 534). This image of the speaker shows the first sign of his delusional ideas of the people in his town. Collins create a connection between the speaker’s teacher teaching life and retired life in lines five and six of the poem. These connections are “ chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard,” which compares images that the readers can picture.

Read More
476 Words | 2 Pages

The author was very descriptive in the writing. The reader can sit and visualize what the author is saying and trying to get you to see. He (the author) also says “cedar posts and collapsed homes” also gives you the feel of abandonment. The feeling of abandonment is depressing because its almost as if the people gave up on the land. The land was not suitable to live in due to the extreme winds and dust.

Read More
479 Words | 2 Pages

This lessens the cruel reality of war where entire cities were destroyed and millions of people died. A tone shift is present in Wilbur’s poem in the first verse, it is dark and frightening but by the end of the first stanza there is alliteration with the question, “Who cooks for you?.... Who cooks for you?” These questions are meant to comfort the child and protect him/her from the terrors of the natural world. Once again the tone shifts dark when diction such as “stealthy’, “dark”, and “raw” are used.

Read More
1139 Words | 5 Pages

Theodore Roosevelt, former governor of New York, became president due to an odd set of circumstances. Former governor of New York, he was put on the ballot as incumbent President McKinley’s running mate. This was so he could stay in politics, an important member of the Republican party, but giving him as little power as possible, so he could be unable to exercise his unorthodox methods. However, President McKinley was shot, and Roosevelt was sworn in. As shown in Appendix 1, President Roosevelt’s foreign policy was based upon regulating two entirely different groups of people; the developed, rich countries, and the undeveloped, poorer countries.

Read More
406 Words | 2 Pages

The ghost town photographs include “a rundown homestead amongst a green meadow; an old, broken down, and rusted wooden wagon wheel; and the remains of an office that once housed the town lawyer.”

Read More
957 Words | 4 Pages

Tyner’s use of character, plot, and symbolism in his poem establishes a connection to his childhood and the narrator, illustrating the scenery of poverty through the lens of a child. The poem describes

Read More
334 Words | 2 Pages

In her poem “Abandoned Farmhouse”, Ted Kooser suggests that a farmhouse was abandoned after “Something went wrong”. Throughout the poem we see many of the artifacts that were left behind in the farmhouse. The speaker’s description of the farmhouse sets a gloomy, depressing mood by using words such as “broken”, “abandoned”, and “empty”. The speaker uses personification and gives life to these artifacts that were left behind and tells us everything through their point of view.

Read More
988 Words | 4 Pages

Poetry Analysis Essay #1 In the poem, Good Bones by Maggie Smith, the poem has a theme of life and childhood. This idea is supported by Smith’s use of repetition, imagery, and metaphors working together to create a poem about the essence of the world. These tools function as a whole by discussing how everyone should love the world and be optimistic no matter what society's actions are, so people can make the world a better place and extend children's youth experience. One of the first poetic devices that Smith uses in her poem to create the theme of life and childhood is the use of repetition.

Read More
948 Words | 4 Pages

Furthermore, the superficial simplicity of Hughes’ poems is not meant to deceive, but to encourage readers to engage in poetry from different perspectives because there is more to the poem than meets the eye. Additional questions remain, however. Does Hughes’ experimentation with form threaten to mischaracterize or further objectify the subjects of his poetry? Does Hughes ascribe too much value to these ordinary objects and places? Are there limitations to Hughes’ experimentation?

Read More
842 Words | 4 Pages

Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese” was a text that had a profound, illuminating, and positive impact upon me due to its use of imagery, its relevant and meaningful message, and the insightful process of preparing the poem for verbal recitation. I first read “Wild Geese” in fifth grade as part of a year-long poetry project, and although I had been exposed to poetry prior to that project, I had never before analyzed a poem in such great depth. This process of becoming intimately familiar with the poem—I can still recite most of it to this day—allowed it to have the effect it did; the more one engulfs oneself in a text, the more of an impact that text will inevitably have. “Wild Geese” was both revealing and thought-provoking: reciting it gave me

Read More
1749 Words | 7 Pages

In this poem Henry Longfellow describes a seaside scene in which dawn overcomes darkness, thus relating to the rising of society after the hardships of battle. The reader can also see feelings, emotions, and imagination take priority over logic and facts. Bridging the Romantic Era and the Realism Era is the Transcendental Era. This era is unusual due to it’s overlapping of both the Romantic and Realism Era. Due to its coexistence in two eras, this division serves as a platform for authors to attempt to establish a new literary culture aside from the rest of the world.

Read More
439 Words | 2 Pages

Kooser’s distinct choice of vocabulary reveals the despondent aftermath of “the weed-choked yard” and “stones in the field” (18). Events such as having a loved one abandon one another can be devastating. Kooser uses the word broken in “broken dish” (2) and “Bible with a broken back” (5) to tell the readers that the man is broken from the

Read More
938 Words | 4 Pages

In several poems from Song for a Birth Or a Death (1961), Jennings looks back over the history of human experience and consider the nature and consequences of traditional ways of explaining experience. She tries to get back to the source and origin of human knowledge and to imagine alternative ways of making sense of the

Read More

More about Summary Of Abandoned Farmhouse By Ted Kooser

Related Topics

Open Document