Selecting a Reader

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1980

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Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Form and Meter

Ted Kooser’s “Selecting a Reader” is made up of 13 lines. The poem has no identifiable meter, and it features no rhymes. It is short and expresses the personal imaginings of the poet. The poem is also an example of free verse. Free verse allows the poet to write lines in any length and to adopt any or no rhyme scheme. In this poem, each of the lines is relatively balanced, as they each contain between six and 13 syllables.

The neat and simple form of the poem reflects Kooser’s belief that poetry should invite readers and welcome them rather than intimidate or scare them off with a complex structure. The poem’s simple structure appears accessible, and the words contained in the stanza are the kind of words that most people use in their everyday lives.

Narrative Voice

Kooser uses a distinctive narrative voice to relay the action in the poem. The poem is clear and precise, containing enough mystery to keep the reader intrigued. The word “beautiful” (Line 1) and the phrase “the loneliest moment of an afternoon” (Line 3) are somewhat ambiguous, but they are not overly complex or abstract. The voice is sturdy and repetitive, and the straightforward voice does not interfere with the poem but moves it along to the epiphany at the end, where the woman realizes she can get her raincoat cleaned for the price of the book, and so "she will" (Line 13).

As the narrative voice has much in common with Kooser’s poetics, it is reasonable to understand Kooser as the speaker of his poem. In a 2005 reading at the University of Nebraska, before reciting “Selecting a Reader,” Kooser introduced the poem. He says it “describes the state of contemporary poetry.” The voice of the poem also reflects Kooser’s emphasis on simple, unpretentious speech that contains the potential for humor. After Kooser finishes reading the poem in the 2005 reading, the audience laughs, which suggests that the voice of the speaker is not all that serious.

Imagery

The details of various images make up most of the text in “Selecting a Reader.” Nearly every line features a specific image or detail that contributes to the reader’s understanding of the speaker’s fantasy. The nuanced set of related pictures builds on one another and creates a humorous, revelatory ending.

The first line features the most nonspecific image, as “beautiful” (Line 1) presents a bland image of an attractive woman whose beauty is up to the reader to imagine. The next image in Line 2 puts the woman in motion as she walks “carefully” up to Kooser’s poetry. In Line 3, the image conveys the time of the day: “the loneliest moment of an afternoon.”

In Lines 4-8, the images expand upon the beautiful woman’s person. These lines reveal that her hair is “still damp at the neck / from washing it” (Lines 4-5), that her raincoat is dirty, and that she wears glasses. Lines 9-11 deploy images to communicate the woman’s behavior in the book store. She flips through the speaker’s poems before putting the book back on the shelf.