Abandoned Farmhouse
Hello fellow poets!
This morning we got to read the creepy Abandoned Farmhouse poem by Ted Kooser. Throughout this poem, I included 5 questions in italics, so when you are complete, be sure to look back and make sure you made 5 comments.
Abandoned Farmhouse
Related Poem Content Details
BY TED KOOSER
He was a big man, says the size of his shoes
on a pile of broken dishes by the house;
a tall man too, says the length of the bed
in an upstairs room; and a good, God-fearing man,
says the Bible with a broken back
on the floor below the window, dusty with sun;
but not a man for farming, say the fields
cluttered with boulders and the leaky barn.
A woman lived with him, says the bedroom wall
papered with lilacs and the kitchen shelves
covered with oilcloth, and they had a child,
says the sandbox made from a tractor tire.
Money was scarce, say the jars of plum preserves
and canned tomatoes sealed in the cellar hole.
And the winters cold, say the rags in the window frames.
It was lonely here, says the narrow country road.
Something went wrong, says the empty house
in the weed-choked yard.
Stones in the fields
say he was not a farmer; the still-sealed jars
in the cellar say she left in a nervous haste.
And the child?
Its toys are strewn in the yard
like branches after a storm—a rubber cow,
a rusty tractor with a broken plow,
a doll in overalls.
Something went wrong, they say.
Questions:
1.
What is the speaker's tone?
2.
What images does the poet use?
How do the images relate to each other?
Please name at least 5 images.
3.
What is the theme of the poem?
Can you state it in a single sentence?
4.
In your own words, what was the poem about?
5.
In your Language Arts notebook, I want you to continue this poem using the writer's style.
In other words, write a 4th stanza.
You do not have to answer this question on NowComment (it is optional), as I want you to surprise your audience as you read your stanza from your notebook to the class on Friday.
icons on the left to see existing comments.
0 General Document comments
0 Sentence and Paragraph comments
0 Image and Video comments
General Document Comments 0
