abandoned Farmhouse by: Ted KOoser By: Alexis Mildren

Poem #1

Poem #2

Biographical Information Ted received these awards: Poet Laureate of the United States Pulitzer Prize for his book of poems Delights and Shadows Ted’s style of poetry is described as directness, honest, and accessible. Family: Married to Kathleen Rutledge One son, Jeff Two granddaughters, Margaret and Penelope Education: Attended Ames Public school for elementary and middle. For his high school years he attended Ames High school. He attended college at Iowa State University.

Imagery This part gives me a better understanding of one of the characters that may be important later in the story. This part gives me a vivid image of what the setting was around the farmhouse.

This part of the text gives me an image of the bedroom and kitchen along with the image of a child playing in a sandbox. This part is telling me that the family of three may be going through some rough times because to keep the house warm they must put rags in the windows.

The image that the text portrays is as if an accident or tragedy of some sort has happened and that there was a reason to, as the text says, leave in a nervous haste. This part is describing that the kid must have been scooped up and that nothing was cleaned up.

Speaker Our speakers tone would be a frightened and mysterious tone. This piece in the text gives me the understanding that the speaker wants to have a mysterious feel. When I read this I get the feeling that the disaster that happened was a natural disaster that threw the child’s toys everywhere. This quote shows how the speaker would give a lonely and disserted feeling. Our speakers tone would be a frightened and mysterious tone. The tone is also to lead the reader to question what happened to the family.

Literary Elements The phrases “says the”, “say the”, “says he”, and “says she” are repeated in a pattern of starting a new description of an object or person. Key: = consonance = repetition

Structure 5 3 stanzas 24 lines Each stanza is an octave Descriptive poem because the speaker is describing the house as if he were standing in it using imagery and adjectives 10 15 20

Literal Meaning Stanza 1: The man that is described as tall, Christian, and not a very good farmer. Stanza 2: There is now a woman and child living with the man described in the first stanza. This family of three is struggling for money and there life was very lonely on this old country road. Stanza 3: This family went through a crisis that destroyed there old farmhouse. The family had to escape quickly because of the toys and objects scattered everywhere.

Figurative Meaning: This stanza is introducing the idea that this man brought his family away from the big city to start a farm. He obviously was not educated on what the life of farming was. In the begging of this stanza the reader is introduced to the wife and child of the “big man”. When it says “money was scarce” proves the idea of the family moving onto a farm to get away from the city. This stanza gives the idea that something has gone wrong. After research about the time period, I have found out that this was written during the cold war. So maybe the family was fleeing a bombing.

“Every plan does not always go as planed.” Author’s Purpose Theme: “Every plan does not always go as planed.” This theme is backed by the text because the father of this family moved and did not have the skills of a farmer. Then when the poem mentions poverty is showing how the “big man’s” plan did not work out the way he wanted it to. Also I begin to think that the family was not ready for whatever accident hit them.

Websites used https://www.famousbirthdays.com/people/ted-kooser.html https://www.onthisday.com/date/1980 http://learn.lexiconic.net/elementsofpoetry.htm http://www.tedkooser.net/about.shtml