19 pages • 38 minutes read
So This is Nebraska
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Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
"Clouds” by Denise Levertov (1966)
Just as the pickup truck in Kooser’s poem “So This Is Nebraska” reads the clouds, the speaker in Levertov’s poem devotes their attention to the clouds. Aside from the appearance of clouds, both poems present quaint yet accessible images. Kooser’s depictions of Nebraska carefully straddle the line between puzzling and clear, and Levertov’s rendering of the clouds is playfully effusive. Levertov’s poem also uses personification, as the speaker watches the clouds “pursuing / the fallen sun” as if the clouds were human soldiers chasing a retreating enemy.
“Selecting a Reader” by Ted Kooser (1980)
“Selecting a Reader” is the first poem in Sure Signs, and it shares many of the themes, motifs, and ideas of “So This Is Nebraska.” The poem maintains Kooser’s emphasis on struggling, downtrodden people and things. In “Selecting a Reader,” the speaker announces that their ideal reader is a woman who does not think she can afford to clean her disheveled raincoat. However, after picking up a book of pricey poems, the speaker concludes that they can and will clean their coat. As in “So This Is Nebraska,” the speaker in “Selecting a Reader” tries to connect themselves to people and things that upend expectations or deviate from certain societal norms and socioeconomic classes.
“Canada” by Billy Collins (1994)
In “So This Is Nebraska,” Kooser provides a quaint portrait of a state in Midwest America. In “Canada,” Billy Collins creates a playful portrait of, as the title suggests, the country to the north of the United States, Canada. Like Kooser, Collins is a poet known for intentionally writing accessible poems. In “Canada,” Collins’ direct diction and sense of humor invite the reader in and cheekily guide them through his idiosyncratic poem. “Canada” and “Nebraska” share many literary devices, including repetition and a distinct tone.
Further Literary Resources
"A Conversation with Ted Kooser” by David Baker (2007)
This conversation with Kooser, conducted by Kenyon Review editor David Baker, illuminates Kooser’s thoughts and ideas on poetry. Kooser comes across as sincere and earnest in his attempt to make poetry accessible without dumbing it down or oversimplifying it. Kooser directly addresses misperceptions of poetry, arguing that many people had “poetry ruined for them in the public schools by teachers who said, ‘The following poem has a meaning that I want you to dig out.’” For Kooser, poets can reach a wider audience if they know how to approach a reader.
“The Farm Crisis of the 1980s” by Iowa PBS
Providing more context for the economic and geographical backdrop of Kooser’s poem, this resource gives a timeline of agricultural progress in the United States and a more detailed picture of the factors leading to the crisis of the 1980s, as well as the aftermath in small towns and rural communities, and the activism that slowly led to recovery.
Citizen by Claudia Rankine (2014)
As a point of comparison, this award-winning collection from Claudia Rankine features a mix of hybrid texts and prose poems. In the prose poems, the speaker often refers to themselves as “you”—just like the speaker in “So This Is Nebraska.” Indeed, in Rankine’s poems and Kooser’s poem, the speakers feel at odds with their respective environments. In Rankine‘s poems, the alienation is not because the speaker longs to become a part of a blissfully atrophied landscape; rather, it is because the speaker continually faces varying forms of racism.
Listen to Poem
Listen to and watch Ted Kooser read his poem “So This Is Nebraska.” In the video, Kooser appears to be on a farm and looks rather farmer-like in a jean jacket. More so, Kooser explains the origins of the poem and describes it as a “real snotty poem about Nebraska,” which suggests the speaker’s perspective perhaps is not so benign, though one can always assume a level of authorial distance.
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