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Home burial by robert frost summary
Robert frost home burial poem interpretation analysis research paper
Robert frost home burial poem interpretation analysis research paper
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The Selfish Misery of Home Burial
Robert Frost's poem "Home Burial" is an intriguing portrait of a marital relationship that has gone wrong. Though at first glance it may seem that the cause for the couple's trouble is the death of their child, closer reading allows the reader to see that there are other serious, deeper-rooted problems at work. The couples differences in their approach to grieving is only the beginning of their problems.
Many of the real problems lie in the wife's self-absorbed attitude of consuming unhappiness and anger. Her outlook on her life and marriage is so narrow that she winds up making both her husband and herself victims of her issues. It is clear that Frost intended the reader to see through the dialogue of "Home Burial" how the selfish misery of one can wreak havoc on others, and how it may be impossible for such a situation to be overcome.
Modern readers might prefer to look at "Home Burial" from a feminist angle, insisting that the husband is at fault, and the wife is the victim of his lack of appropriate concern and communication. This is not the case, as the husband's concern for his wife is clearly shown throughout the poem. From the very beginning of the scene Frost illustrates this by the husband's attitude and approach. In the very first line the husband watches his wife as she looks out the window (line 1). Since immediately after she turns around he asks what she is so interested in, it is clear that he was thinking about what could be troubling her as he saw her on the stairs. Twice he refers to her as "dear" (12 and 44). It is not often the case that people who are wholly unsympathetic to another call that person by an endearment and contemplate their distress.
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...ind, stubborn anger the wife displays. A parent/child relationship could easily have the same problems with poor communication and misunderstanding. "Home Burial" can be seen as a commentary on selfish misery that destroys more than just the unhappy person. If only the wife would be willing to step back and listen to her husband, they might be able to salvage their marriage and have a happy life. However, the ending of the poem does not leave much hope for such reconciliation. It can be hoped that anyone reading "Home Burial" would be willing to do more than the wife was to save any relationships they may be struggling in, but the way Frost ends the poem implies he may see that hope as unrealistic.
WORKS CITED
Frost, Robert. "Home Burial." The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 5th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000. 792-794.
Gerber, Philip L. Robert Frost. Ed. Kenneth Eble. Boston: Twayne Publishers, Inc. 1982. The. 124-125 Lentricchia, Frank.
Spending time with each other, having strong morals and giving a lot of love are a few of the things that give families hope and happiness. In the novel A Death in the Family (1938) by James Agee, a family has to use these advantages in order to make it through a very difficult time. During the middle of one night in 1915, the husband, Jay, and his wife, Mary, receive a phone call saying that Jay's father is dying. Ralph, the person who called, is Jay's brother, and he happens to be drunk. Jay doesn't know if he can trust Ralph in saying that their father is dying, but he doesn't want to take the chance of never seeing his father again, so he decides to go see his father. He kisses his wife goodbye and tells her he might be back for dinner the next day, but not to wait up for him. Dinner comes and goes, but he never arrives. That night, Mary gets awakened by a caller saying that Jay has been in a serious auto accident. She later finds out that he died. The rest of the novel is about Mary and her family's reactions to the death. This experience for Mary and her family is something that changes their lives forever, but it doesn't ruin them. If someone has a close person to them decease, he or she feel as if they cannot go on, but because of the close family ties that Mary, Jay, and their children shared, they know that they will be able to continue on after Jays death.
Robert Frost is undoubtedly gifted when it comes to his poetry, but not all aspects of his life were so easy. One of the most troubling areas in Frost’s life was his family. He held a long term engagement to his wife Elinor, whom he pleaded to marry. Also, his children were plagued with birth defects, terminal illness, and emotional instability. The Frosts lost four of their children at an early age, including daughter Elinor Bettina who died three days after birth. In 1938, after months of deteriorating health, Frost’s wife Elinor died of heart failure. Frost was so shaken that he collapsed and could not attend the memorial services. Later, in 1940, Frost was utterly disturbed by his son Carol’s suicide.
Díaz dictatorship oversaw the broadest and most rapid period of economic expansion and change in Mexican history. Led to the mass dispossession of the lands and traditional rights.2
Frost begins the poem by describing a young boy cutting some wood using a "buzz-saw." The setting is Vermont and the time is late afternoon. The sun is setting and the boy's sister calls he and the other workers to come for "Supper." As the boy hears its dinnertime, he gets excited and cuts his hand on accident. Immediately realizing that the doctor might amputate his hand, he asks his sister to make sure that it does not happen. By the time the doctor arrives, it is too late and the boy's hand is already lost. When the doctor gives him anaesthetic, he falls asleep and never wakes up again. The last sentence of the poem, "since they (the boys family and the doctor) were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" shows how although the boys death is tragic, people move on with their life in a way conveying the idea that people only care for themselves.
In his narrative poem, Frost starts a tense conversation between the man and the wife whose first child had died recently. Not only is there dissonance between the couple,but also a major communication conflict between the husband and the wife. As the poem opens, the wife is standing at the top of a staircase looking at her child’s grave through the window. Her husband is at the bottom of the stairs (“He saw her from the bottom of the stairs” l.1), and he does not understand what she is looking at or why she has suddenly become so distressed. The wife resents her husband’s obliviousness and attempts to leave the house. The husband begs her to stay and talk to him about what she feels. Husband does not understand why the wife is angry with him for manifesting his grief in a different way. Inconsolable, the wife lashes out at him, convinced of his indifference toward their dead child. The husband accepts her anger, but the separation between them remains. The wife leaves the house as husband angrily threatens to drag her back by force.
Pritchard, William H. Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1985. 43.
Vivaldi's music is particularly innovative as he gave brightness to the formal and the rhythmic structure of concertos. He repeatedly looked for harmonic contrasts, creating innovative melodies and themes. Vivaldi’ main goal was to create a musical piece meant to be appreciated by the wide public, and not only by an intellectual minority. The joyful appearance of his music reveals a transmittable joy of composing. These are among the causes of the vast popularity of his music. This popularity soon made him famous also in countries like France, at the time very closed into its national schemes. He is considered one of the authors that brought Baroque music to evolve into an impressionist style.
Home Burial is just one example of Frost’s theme of communication, mainly focusing on the negative aspects. On the opposite hand, though, Frost wrote a poem titled Death of a Hired Man that directly contrasted Frosts other statement about communication. This poem focused on the positive aspects of a successful marriage that benefitted from an open line of communication. In this setting, both the husband and wife are able to discuss their concerns and thought about a previous worker. This worker had broken his contract with them unexpectedly and the husband felt thoroughly wronged by this hired man. Then when his wife mentioned that the hired man appeared again, dying, and wanting to make up for what he had done, the husband quickly turned sour. Their differences in opinion could have ended up disastrous if they had fortified their emotional walls against each other, however, instead they were open and honest about what they thought. Though, the ending of this poem isn’t necessarily a joyous one, the reader can see an example of a successful, communicative marriage, which thrives in the face of problems rather crumbling. In this instance, Frost has given two poems that exemplifies what it means to be communicative with another person. However, he never quite reveals how or why it occurs the way it does. In truth, Frost may be just as lost about its origins and details as the reader is. The first poem in North of Boston, Mending Wall, could be considered a lead in to this unanswered question about communication. Constantly throughout the poem Frost has his characters repeat the phrase, “Good fences make good neighbors” (27). At first glance, this may seem to be a wise phrase about the necessity of boundaries, but to Frost it should most likely have a deeper thought process attached to it. From this phrase and this poem it would seem that Frost is asking, when do
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken”. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7Th Ed. Nina
Throughout the play you feel bad for Macbeth, he is truly someone you can relate to and show remorse for. Early in the play in order for Macbeth to become king of Cawdor, Macbeth must kill the king at the time Duncan. Macbeth does not want to do the deed but is forced to go through with the plan by his lady. “If the assassination could trammel up the consequence, and catch his surcease” (I.vii.2-4). Macbeth is starting to rethink the deed he is going to commit by killing Duncan; Macbeth is given the idea that there will be no consequences for his actions. Readers start to see perfect examples of hubris in Macbeth; Macbeth starts to believe he is above everyone and can get out of any situation he is put into. With all of the murders Macbeth commits through out the play he begins to display that he is above fait and he is able to outwit karma. Readers start to think something is truly wrong mentally with Macbeth; the man no longer values the lives of others. “They pluck out mine eyes! Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood clean from my hands?”(II.ii.60). even after the empty feeling and disgusting feeling of murder after killing Duncan, Macbeth seems shaken by the event that just took place. Soon after, Macbeth is ready to commit another murder. This time the murder of someone closer to his heart, Banqou and his son Fleance. ...
Choices are never easy, facing hundreds upon thousands of them in our lifetime, man has to make decisions based upon these choices. Some decisions are clear while others are sometimes not clear and more difficult to make. The poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost is a prime example of these choices in life. This poem is a first person narrative that is seen by most people as being told by Frost. The poem opens up with the narrator encountering a point in the woods that has a trail diverge into two separate paths. In the poem Frost presents the idea of man facing the difficult predilection of a moment and a lifetime. I believe this idea in the poem is embodied in the fork in the road, the decision between the two paths, and the decision to select the road not taken.
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” is a poem composed by Thomas Gray over a period of ten years. Beginning shortly after the death of his close friend Richard West in 1742, “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” was first published in 1751. This poem’s use of dubbal entendre may lead the intended audience away from the overall theme of death, mourning, loss, despair and sadness; however, this poem clearly uses several literary devices to convey the author’s feelings toward the death of his friend Richard West, his beloved mother, aunt and those fallen soldiers of the Civil War. This essay will discuss how Gray uses that symbolism and dubbal entendre throughout the poem to convey the inevitability of death, mourning, conflict within self, finding virtue in one’s life, dealing with one’s misfortunes and giving recognition to those who would otherwise seem insignificant.
Both poets, in these works and many others, display a fascination with the death of themselves as well as the death of peers, and loved ones. Both Frost and Dickinson experienced a great deal of death throughout each of their lives. Frost’s greatest loss was the death of his son, which is greatly depicted in his poem “Home Burial.” Dickinson suffered the loss of many friends and family. She spent a lot of her time in her room looking out upon the headstones of these people.
Richardson, Mark. The Ordeal of Robert Frost: The Poet and His Poetics. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1997. Print.