Robert Frost's Home Burial

     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.

We see a silence in several women today by looking at their swollen eyes and their cold and startled behavior that they are traumatized by their own husbands. Solnit expresses, "Every woman knows what I’m talking about. It’s the presumption that makes it hard,

Her marriage also causes her to lose control. Even within the one thing that is supposed to hold strong, she is alone. Her husband, leaving her on a daily basis to work, insists that she cannot write nor visit friends and family. Thus, he leaves her alone during the day to sit

be with him, it makes me nervous.” (Gilman pg. 204) She is very articulate and likes to write but due to her controlling husband is not allowed to; so, she keeps it hidden. Maybe, due to the fact what she writes about are her inner thoughts and feelings which reflect on those around her. ” There

It can be difficult for a persona to understand a different perspective. The 1914 blank verse poem, Home Burial, by Robert Frost explores the death of a child and the consequences of this disturbing event on a mother and father. The poem is set at the burgeoning of WWI in pre-war western society. At its core this text explores the gender stereotypes of its time. The mother and father embody the two differing representations of grief over their child’s death. After a brief introduction, the text consists of mostly dialogue which gives the audience an insight into the emotional rift between two personas and their different experiences in dealing with the emotional consequences of death. The husband questions the emotional response of his wife using a demanding tone, desperate to try and understand the reasons for her longing actions “What is it you see From up there always- for

Her emptiness toward her husband may be seen in the way she interacts with him. She

He understands the hardships of marriage by saying “I think it’s fairly well established by now that marriage is a challenge, a creaky, old institution that may not have fully adapted itself to modern life, one that now fails in this country more often than not. Put children in the picture and you have an exponentially higher degree of difficulty” (439). He also understands the troubles caused from motherhood by saying “Motherhood asks the modern woman, who has grown up seeing professional success as hers for the taking, to add the loss of a linear career path to an already considerable burden: child rearing, body issues, a shifting self-image and a husband who fell off his white horse long, long ago. I suppose this would make anyone angry” (439). So although he does not approve of her anger and is not pleased by it, he understands why she might have so much built up anger that she feels the need to take out on her husband. Again, it seems he is blaming society’s standards and stereotypes instead of taking responsibility for his part in the struggling

The author emphasizes the drastic contrast in the speaker's emotional state through the setting she finds herself in. She is taken from the comfort of her home and thrust both an environment and mind state of isolation. However, the setting also helps fuel the hatred that develops in the wife's mind for her husband. The speaker is ambivalent of her feelings for her

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

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.

Frost uses personification by giving "Truth" human-like qualities such as interrupting the speaker. This personification alerts the reader that "Truth," or reality is a major part of the theme of this poem, by giving it

They 'll think we 're insane” (146). One can see how ashamed he is toward they things his wife does. This is another example of a conflict which deeply shows his feeling towards the women he supposed to to spend his life with.

The ability of the father to carry on with life after his son's death is one part of the stereotype that pertains to the male figure. The male character is suppose to be someone who does not cry, someone who is full of inner strength and is the central rock for all those around him in a time of crisis. The husband in "Home Burial" fulfills these requirements. After the burial, he continues on with his daily chores and attends to the various needs of the farm. These actions are not ones of denial but acceptance. He knows that he and his wife must carry on with their lives after an appropriate period of mourning is over. Understandably, his vision of the length of that time period is considerably shorter than his wife's. He understands that life is for the living and not for the dead. He understands that his son is dead. He also understands that he cannot force these views on his wife, because she must come to her own conclusions and find her own closure to her son's death.