Literary Analysis Of Home Burial By Robert Frost

     Frost?s poem delves deeper into the being and essence of life with his second set of lines. The first line states, ?Her early leaf?s a flower.? After the budding and sprouting, which is the birth of nature, is growth into a flower. This is the moment where noon turns to evening, where childhood turns into maturity, and where spring turns into summer. At this very moment is the ripe and prime age of things. The young flower stands straight up and basks in the sun, the now mature teenager runs playfully in the light, and the day and sunlight peak before descending ever so quickly into dusk. The second line of the second set states, ?But only so an hour,? which makes clear that yet again time is passing by and that a beginning will inevitably have an end.

Robert Frost has written a poem about death, consequence, and most importantly, how brief and fragile life can be. He uses a little child as an example to get the reader’s attention. His use of diction, imagery, and other literary devices to make the reader understand

Not only are metaphors utilized throughout the poem, but a literary device known as Imagery is as well. Imagery is alternative as important a device for it allows for the reader to have a clear picture of what the character in the poem is visualizing. Furthermore, it also helps covey the theme the author is aiming to represent to the reader. Imagery is made known in stanza two line three, which states, “Because it was grassy and wanted wear” (Myer, 1091). Here the author is using imagery to inform the readers the traveler is coming up with a reason for why one path could be more favorable over the other. The reader analyzes this line of imagery to obtain a clearer representation of the traveler’s decision-making process. Another line where the author uses imagery is in stanza two line five, which states, “Had worn them really about the same” (Myer, 1091). Here the author is using imagery to inform the reader that the paths are “worn” down, which informs the reader that both of his choices have been equally chosen by people before him. These examples help the reader begin to form the theme of self-justification in decision-making. After analyzing the metaphors and the imagery Frost uses in this poem, the reader can conclude so far that the theme the poet is conveying

Frost entrances the reader’s mind with the bountiful amount of imagery within the poem. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,” the comforting and well-known nature that Frost describes contradicts against the terrifying reality of the unknown through decision making. Frost goes on to explain how he, as many others do, try to visualize what his life would be like if he were to go down one of the roads he chose, “Long I stood and looked down one as far as I could” worrying about how decisions will affect every independent life can be a hassle and trying to understand and fully

and his conscience does not think that this thought is normal. The farm house represents a point in life, something the speaker is not trying to reach. Robert Frost writes the poem using iambic tetrameter. which follows the beat of a horse. The rhythm of the poem further alludes that the horse is a part of the speaker. Death is further mentioned in the poem when the speaker says. “In between the woods and frozen lake”(7) . In Norse Mythology. the underworld is called Hel. and is located in the frozen region of Niflheim. Robert Frost puts Hel and Heaven near each other to show how close the boundaries between the two are. The “darkest evening of the year” (8) shows how deep the speaker's depression is. This depression bolsters the speaker's suicidal thoughts. These thoughts connect to the thin line between Heaven and Hel.

Discovery is an innate aspect of what it means to be human. Discovery involves differing contexts and perspectives and in this way it is unavoidably subjective and offers further insights into the human psyche. This can be seen in the 1914 works of Robert Frost, “Home Burial” that tells of the hardship imposed on a mother and father after the loss of a child, and “Mending Wall” exploring the relationship between two neighbours and the wall that divides them, as well as the 1998 picture book, ‘The Rabbits’ by Shaun Tan and John Marsden, an account of colonisation from the viewpoint of the colonised.

Robert Frost’s poem “Home Burial,” written in 1914, centers around the conversation of a married couple whose relationship is struggling after the death of their young child. A duality in meaning exists in the poem’s title, “Home Burial,” which references not only the death of their child but also the death of their marriage. Is the child’s death the sole cause of their marital distress? Robert Frost opens the poem in the couple’s home with the husband watching as his wife, Amy, begins to descend the staircase (1-2). After a few verses, the audience has become witnesses to the marriage’s descent into nothingness. The child’s grave lies forever in the background, framed by a small window at the top of the stairs (Frost 24-31). In Robert Frost’s “Home Burial”, the marriage of Amy and her husband is irreparable due to differences in expression, acceptance, and perception.

Frost uses a multitude of poetic devices, including metaphors, irony, symbolism, hyperbole, and personification “Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. to vividly reinforce the desolation in the mind and the surroundings of the speaker. The uncertainty of the time in the end is a reflection of the uncertainty in the duration of isolation that the speaker would have to continue to endure. In conclusion, this poem displays the transition into night figuratively as the author experiences a broken heart. I have been one acquainted with the night.” (V,2 ). This is a beautiful and dark poem that describes the somber emotions that an individual endures after a separation. This poem can be relatable to anyone as we all have experienced some type of sorrow. Hopefully after experiencing something of this nature we can see the bright lights after being acquainted with the

is saying, and Frosts personal pain that he is suffering from that he ingrains into this poem. The

The night symbolized death, and the walk was the person's journey to find their lost life. This poem was somewhat disturbing to me. I thought of a lost soul, thirsting to finish a mission that was not completed in life. Frost depicts death in a frightening manner with the contents of this piece of work.

In the poems “Because I Could Not Stop for Death”, by Emily Dickinson and “Home Burial”, by Robert Frost, literary elements are used throughout both poems to get the message the authors are trying to portray. One main important literary element that is used to entice the reader, is symbolism, because it helps the authors describe something without actual describing it. Symbolism is also used because it shows how significant an object is. Characterization is also an important literary technique because it, gives the reader an idea on how the character would act, work, and their values in life. Death is a topic that is used in both poems. Also, every character express their opinion about death differently.

The dramatic situation of the poem becomes apparent in the second stanza, where Frost details the main conflict between the narrator and society. Although the speaker is currently walking in a city, he is alone, “[looking] down the saddest city lane” and shunning any interactions with other people, such as “the watchman on his beat”

Many of Robert Frost’s poems and short stories are a reflection of his personal life and events. Frost’s short story “Home Burial” emulates his experience living on a farm and the death of two of his sons. Frost gives an intimate view into the life and mind of a married couples’ struggle with grief and the strain it causes to their marriage. The characters Frost describes are synonymous, physically and emotionally, to his own life events.

Poetry is a literary medium which often resonates with the responder on a personal level, through the subject matter of the poem, and the techniques used to portray this. Robert Frost utilises many techniques to convey his respect for nature, which consequently makes much of his poetry relevant to the everyday person. The poems “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ and “The mending wall” strongly illuminate Frost’s reverence to nature and deal with such matter that allows Frost to speak to ordinary people.

Robert Frost's "Home Burial" is a tragic poem about a young life cut short and the breakdown of a marriage and family. The poem is considered to be greatly inspired and "spurred by the Frosts' loss of their first child to cholera at age 3" (Romano 2). The complex relationship between husband and wife after their child's death is explored in detail and is displayed truthfully. Among many others, the range of emotions exhibited includes grief, isolation, acceptance, and rejection. The differences in the characters emotions and reactions are evident. The husband and wife in Robert Frost's "Home Burial" react to their son's death in stereotypical fashion and interact with each other with difficulty and resistance.