Howard Nemerov Sonnet Award

to explain it. However, Howard Nemerov attempted the trying task and created the poem “The Vacuum” in 1955. This poem explained death in a way that all of us endeavor to. The mood, figurative speech, and setting of the poem argues that death is not only hard for the person dying, but that it is harder for those who are left behind. Dictionary.com has the word “isolation” defined as, “the complete separation from others of a person suffering” (insert citation here). Nemerov could not explain it better