In “The Vacuum” by Howard Nemerov, the speaker of this poem highlights the grief and sorrow he feels. The reader understands that his wife left him a widow and the implications behind this. The narrator discusses the vacuum she leaves behind and the effect it has on him and the atmosphere. Moreover, the speaker uses the vacuum as a symbol to represent the absence of his dead wife.
Through the figurative language the narrator implements, the reader can assume that the vacuum symbolizes his deceased wife since women are stereotypically associated with cleanliness and homemaking. When the narrator discusses the vacuum “ginning into the floor, maybe at my slovenly life, my dog-dead youth,” it is safe to correlate this to the loss of a womanly figure
Through the figurative language the narrator implements, the reader can assume that the vacuum symbolizes his deceased wife since women are stereotypically associated with cleanliness and homemaking. When the narrator discusses the vacuum “ginning into the floor, maybe at my slovenly life, my dog-dead youth,” it is safe to correlate this to the loss of a womanly figure