Annotating Poetry
Name _______________________________
When you annotate something, you are marking it up by making notes about what you understand or
don’t understand, or circling and identifying poetic devices that are found within a poem. When you
annotate a poem, you may also draw attention to the way the poet used punctuation or a particular
word. Finally, the best poetry annotations will identify something that you were wondering about in
terms of style.
Read the poem below, and then annotate it according to the following questions that follow it. For now,
ignore the words that are italicized and underlined in the poem.
Abandoned Farmhouse
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.
1. What poetic devices exist in this poem? For devices that help you visualize (simile, metaphor,
personification, etc.), highlight them in YELLOW or ORANGE. Then label the devices you found.
1B. What effect do the devices you found above have on the poem? You cannot say “They help me
visualize or they have no effect.” THINK!
2. What sound devices (assonance, alliteration, consonance) exist in the poem? Highlight them with a
GREEN or BLUE highlighter, and then label them. How does the use of sound devices make the poem
sound more like a poem?
3. Describe the structure of the poem? In other words, how is it organized? Clearly label each stanza
with a number and then count how many lines are in each. Is the organization similar or different from
that of a story or essay? Explain your answer.
4. Poems all have a tone. The tone of a poem is the mood that is created from the description used.
What two ADJECTIVES would you assign to this poem? Why?
4B. Go back through the poem and box in the words or phrases that help support the tone you chose to
assign the poem.
5. The best poems usually leave you guessing or wondering about something. Explain what this poem
leaves you wondering about.
5B. What exactly do YOU think happened to this family? What words, phrases or images in the poem
make you think that? Explain your answer clearly.
6. The title of the poem helps you understand what has happened since it uses the word ABANDONED.
Think of a new title for the poem to suggest that someone lived here and loved this farmhouse. Then
select ONE of the stanzas to rewrite in that manner.
7. Throughout the poem, there are words that are italicized and underlined. At the end of the line in
which it appears, identify the part of speech for the word.