Analysis of Home Burial by Robert Frost

Analysis of Home Burial by Robert Frost

Robert Frost wrote the poem Home Burial after he and his wife suffered the tragic loss of their 4-year-old son. Home Burial shows the emotions people feel after such a loss, and how they face those emotions. Through Frost's experience he shows that men and women grieve in different ways.

In Home Burial Frost demonstrates, through the husband, that in the grieving process men tend to show strength. Throughout the poem you see the husband proceed to do his everyday tasks. The husband states, 'Three foggy mornings and one rainy day are enough to rot the best birch fence a man could build.'(Robert Frost). Here is just one example of how the husband is trying to move forward through work. Another example of how the husband tries to continue with life is seen in this statement he makes, 'Can't a man speak of his own child he's lost?'(Frost). In addition to work, the husband tries to get past their loss by speaking of his child. He does not want to forget about his child. Through the use of words, the husband can keep the memory of that child alive; while at the same time get adjusted to the fact that his child is dead.

We see through the eyes of Frost, that as the strength and breadwinner of the family, the husband tries to heal his wife Amy?s grief, fix her. Speaking to Amy he says, ?There you have said it all and you feel better.?(Frost). Robert Gale, a critic of the poem says, ?He puts too much faith in words.?(Robert Gale). The husband, in trying to fix Amy?s grief, wants her to believe that since she has verbally stated how she feels, she can now move on. He fails to realize that the pain Amy feels runs deeper than just words, or doesn?t want to believe that his pain o...

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...e associated this with the rotting corpse of their child. She sees her husband as unfeeling and unemotional about their child. Since she will not communicate with him, she cannot understand how he could just bury their child and not give it a second thought.

Home Burial opens the eyes of the reader. It allows one to see the different ways people grieve. It shows that there is no right or wrong way to grieve, and that just because two people don?t show their grief in the same manner it does not mean that one person is in more pain than the other. This poem shows the importance of communication between a husband and wife, and that the best way to get past the pain of losing a loved one just may be to lean on others, who like you, were also left behind

Bibliography:

1) Frost, Robert. 'Home Burial.'

2) Gale, Robert L. 'Home Burial.' MagilOnLine.