Name _____________________
Date _________ Period ______
Abandoned Farmhouse Analysis Packet
Abandoned Farmhouse Pre-read Exercise Analyze the picture above. Record the different items that
you see in the room. What can we infer about the former residents of this room based on the photo?
Item
Inference
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,
Section 1: Comprehension
1. How many people lived on the farm?
2. Describe the man who lived on the farm?
3. Describe the woman who lived on the farm?
4. What evidence suggests that something went wrong
at the farm?
5. Were the former residents of the farm successful
financially?
6. In line 7, what does the poet mean when he says “but
not a man for farming”
7. Based on lines 13-14, what is a “cellar hole”?
Section 2: Take the following stanzas and rewrite them in your own words
Poet’s Words
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.
Your Words
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.
Section 3: Short Answers-must show a deep understanding of the text by providing a thesis (main idea to
support), analysis of the poem, and text evidence from the poem.
1. How does the narrator help readers understand the poem? Use evidence from the story to support your
answer.
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2. What happened on the farm? (Make inferences with what you can.)
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3. Do your previous life experiences influence your answer to the above question? How so, or why not?
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Section 4: Literary devices
Personification-A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstraction is given human qualities or
abilities.
Example: The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night.
1. What can be inferred about the rain? Why does the author use personification?
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Directions: List inanimate speakers, what they are saying, and your inferences based on the comments made by
the inanimate objects.
Inanimate Speaker
Shoes
Comment
“He was a big man”
Length of the Bed
“A tall man too”
Connection/Inference
Big shoes would only be worn by
a large man
The length of the bed revealed that
he is not only big, but tall as well.
2. Why might the author let the objects tell the story?
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Imagery: Words and phrases that help the readers image or experience a text through their senses: sight,
sound, taste, touch and smell.
Sensory Detail: Same as Imagery, words and phrases that help readers imagine or experience a text through
their senses: sight, sound, taste, touch and smell.
Directions:
Find words and phrases that help the reader “see” or “hear” the poem. Complete the chart below.
Sights
Words or phrases that help the reader “see” the events of the poem
Example: “It’s toys were strewn in the yard like branches after a storm”
Now we are going to write about imagery. Look at the example below.
The author uses imagery to help the reader imagine or experience the poem. The author helps the reader “see”
the how the toys were spread across the yard when he writes, “It’s toys were strewn in the yard like branches
after a storm.” This sensory detail is important because it helps the reader picture broken branches after the
destruction of storm, showing that the toys are littering the yard.
Now you try. Pick a sight from your chart to use.
The author uses imagery to help the reader imagine or experience the poem. The author helps the reader “see”
the _______________________________ when he writes,
“_____________________________________________________.” This sensory detail is important because
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Diction-the specific word choices an author makes. These choices distinguish a writer’s voice from other
writers.
1. Circle all the adjectives in the poem. (Remember, an adjective is a part of speech that modifies/describes a
noun or pronoun.)
2. In the chart below categorize all the adjectives in the poem as positive, neutral, or negative.
Positive
Neutral
Negative
3. In which category did most of the adjectives fall?_____________
4. How does that make you feel/what effect does that have on the reader?
Tone-is the emotion or attitude of the story. To describe tone, we always use emotion words.
Tone words
Mysterious, uplifting, serene, bleak, optimistic, depressing, frightening, amusing, perplexing, enlightening
The author uses ________________to create a(n) _____________________tone in the poem. For example,
when the author writes,
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reader:____________________________________________________________________________________
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Subject – verb agreement
• Notice that it is the items in the poem that “speak.” They tell the story.
• The poem says: “He was a big man, says the size of his shoes…”
• Normally, we would say: “The size of his shoes says he was a big man…”
(Remember it is the “size” speaking, so it is singular, although “shoes” is plural. The size says, “he was a big
man”, but if the shoes were “speaking”, the shoes say, “he was a big man.”)
• Underline all places where an item “says” something.
Ex. - He was a big man, says the size of his shoes…”
•
Notice that the first two stanzas go in the following order:
1. what is said
2. the item that says it
3. Where the item is located
Why would Kooser invert the natural order of the sentence? Where is the emphasis in each description?
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Section 5: Time to Look at the Final Stanza… How is it different?
• It asks a question. Why is this the only question?
– “And the child?”
1. Why is this the only question?
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A short sentence is repeated at the beginning and end of the stanza:
“Something went wrong.”
2. Why does the author choose to repeat this?
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3. What is the overall idea that the objects convey?
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Your turn!
We will be writing our own poem in which the objects tell the story.
Brainstorm/Graphic Organizer/Pre-writing Stage
Step 1: Think of a space, area, place, or event. Choose something that is comfortable and you know
well.
(Example: Home, room, car, practice field, breakup, move, funeral, holiday, competition, meal, etc.)
My space/event is: __________________________________________________________________________
Step 2: Fill out the following chart based on the space or event you just chose.
• What do the objects say about you, the event, or other things?
• Be creative
– Remember, what the object says comes first.
– Example: She was an active woman, say the running shoes discarded on the cluttered floor…
• Where are the items within the space? (Use prepositional phrases: on, under, below, etc.)
Says
Item
Location
After you have picked your items, we will be creating our own poem in which items tell a story, or tell us
something.
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Your poem should be broken into stanzas
It should include at least 10-15 items and plenty of original details (feel free to use your chart above)
It should take inspiration in some way from Abandoned Farmhouse
The last stanza should have a line that is repeated, a central question, and a simile
Consider the following before writing your poem:
– What message do you want revealed?
– Do you have enough sensory details to make the poem vivid in your reader’s mind?
– Is your diction precise, and does it evoke the feeling you want?
Write your poem on the following lined page.
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