However howard nemerov attempted the trying task and created the poem the vacuum in 1955.
The vacuum poem shmoop.
The mood figurative speech and.
This poem explained death in a way that all of us endeavor to.
By entering your email.
It s a vacuum cleaner.
Shmoop poetry study guides and teacher resources.
The next thousand years were just a big vacuum of forgetfulness.
He couldn t think of anything but her.
I ve lived this way long enough but when my old woman died her soul went into that vacuum cleaner and i can t bear to see the bag swell like a belly eating the dust and the woollen mice and begin.
The fact that the poem is entitled the vacuum and not the vacuum.
But it s not just any vacuum cleaner.
The vacuum the house is so quiet now the vacuum cleaner sulks in the corner closet its bag limp as a stopped lung its mouth grinning into the floor maybe at my slovenly life my dog dead youth.
With a title like flora and ulysses you wouldn t be blamed for thinking the story was about well people named flora and ulysses and as it turns out that s exactly what the story is about aside from the fact that ulysses just so happens to be a squirrel the title clues us in to the fact that these two share the spotlight in the book setting us up to understand that it s not just about an.
Click on any quote below to see it in context and find out where it falls on shmoop s pretentious scale.
I ve lived this way long enough but when my old woman died her soul went into that vacuum cleaner and i can t bear to see the bag swell like a belly eating the dust.
A free summary of the poem the computation by john donne.
We ll give you details on who wrote it when they wrote it and in some cases why on earth they thought it was okay to write it.
Howard nemerov was a highly acclaimed poet often cited for the range of his capabilities and subject matter from the profound to the poignant to the comic james billington remarked in his announcement of nemerov s appointment to the post of united states poet laureate.
Smart fresh guides to great poetry by stanford harvard and berkeley ph d.
But he doesn t want us to think that living 2 400 years in a day has given him long life.
For more poetry quotes head on over to our poetry section choose a poem and click quotes in the navigation.
The line in the poem the vacuum cleaner sulks in the corner.
Read the poem and get the summary on what it all means.
The speaker is an older widower for whom there is a vacuum meaning both the absence of matter as well as the appliance where his wife once was.
It s the ulysses 2000x.
She s not amused but he tells her she can use it anywhere and should give it a shot.
Howard nemerov s the vacuum is structured around a central pun that of the vacuum.
