So This is Nebraska

The poem’s title reveals one of its primary themes: Nebraska. In other words, what Nebraska means to Kooser, and how he sees and feels about it will be explored. In “So This Is Nebraska,” this is Nebraska for Kooser, and the speaker that guides his poem.

For the first two stanzas, the speaker is rather disembodied. No pronoun marks the presence of a specific, identifiable speaker. It is as if the images of Nebraska subsume the speaker and their identity at first. In the opening stanza, the poem captures the reader and pulls them into the middle of the action as they are riding along a “gravel road” (Line 1) at a “slow gallop” (Line1). For this image, Kooser uses a literary device called juxtaposition, since he pairs the image of a car ride with the slow gallop. The image suggests a return to the past, for while the speaker is in a modern car, their imagination has returned to the days of horseback riding on the open plains. This nostalgic return to another time permeates the poem.

In Lines 2-4, Kooser continues to juxtapose advances in technology with rustic, natural things. In Line 2, he sets the image of telephone lines against the open fields, and in Lines 3-4, he pairs the image of dry, billowing dust being kicked up by the car with the bright red “sparks” (Line 4) of redwing blackbirds.