Poetic Precis: "A Primer of the Daily Round"

Howard Nemerov, in “A Primer of the Daily Round,” discusses in a slightly humorous tone the importance of unity and remembering how we are all connected through an allusion to an elementary style of teaching used in pre-school. In Kindergarten and first grade, teachers teach students the ABCs through coupling the letters with keywords that are easy to remember, like A is for apple. Throughout this poem, Nemerov uses the same style but connects each letter to the following one. In line nine, he says “R lies to S, but happens to be heard By T…,” which shows how each letter of the alphabet is connected. Additionally, this message becomes more clear at the end of the poem, when he says “Who happens just now to remember A.” Nemerov brings the reader back to the beginning of the poem to remember how even A is connected to Z. The point of using this allusion is to depict how each letter is followed by another one, but still together as one unit. Howard Nemerov accomplishes his goal by showing how people can be one unit as well through his allusion to the ABCs.