Abandoned Farmhouse By Ted Koser Summary

In the poem “Abandoned Farmhouse” by Ted Kooser, he uses many devices to create a unique and mysterious setting. It begins by describing the contents of an old abandoned farmhouse. For example, in line 3 it says “a tall man too, says the length of the bed”. This line suggests both that the man was tall, and also that he no longer lives there. Towards the end of this poem, in the third stanza, it begins to talk about what was left of the house. Thus, it begins to create a picture and fill the readers head with many questions. I believe that the writer placed the shift right at the beginning of the third stanza. Up until that point the story only contained references to what is in the house and what the meaning could be behind those. At the third stanza he …show more content…
Kooser uses personification in this story to compare what is literally in the house, to what that could mean the owners were like. For instance he mentions that the size of his shoes meant he was a big man, or the sandbox in the yard means that they had a child. As Ted wrote this poem I don’t think he was trying to create anything too deep below the surface. The ending leaves many possibilities as to what has happened to this family. Personally, I got the feeling that a big fight occurred and the wife left the man along with the child. To go with that, I think a suitable theme could be that “nothing is ever guaranteed.” The man could have lost his women just as easily as he got her. All throughout “Abandoned Farmhouse”, Ted uses personification. For example Ted uses the shoes, bed, bible, sandbox, and so on, to speak to the reader in absence of the people who lived there. Another literary device he uses is alliterations, “says the size of his shoes” (line 1) “tall man too” (line 2), and “good, God fearing man” (line 4) all add emphasis to the particular things