Robert Frost's Love and a Question, Mending Wall, and Home Burial

2363 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Themes of robert frost poems

Robert Frost's "Love and a Question," "Mending Wall," and "Home Burial"

In Robert Frost’s poems “Love and a Question,” “Mending Wall,” and “Home Burial,” there is a significant barrier present between man and man or woman. Conflict between people is a major theme for these poems, and it alters the outcome of them. There is a great deal of tension present between the characters, causing unstable relationships, as well as a desire for no relationship at all. These three poems are based around knowing that conflict is inevitable, and it evidently causes a desire for little to no human interaction.

In “Love and a Question,” there is tension between man and man and man and woman. The bridegroom is faced with a decision on whether to provide shelter to a stranger for the night and sacrifice quality time with his wife, or not let him stay and have a romantic evening with his wife as he originally planned. In “Mending Wall,” the speaker has trouble fathoming why his neighbor desires to have some separation from him. It seems that for the most part, the neighbor would rather be more in touch with nature than other human beings. In “Home Burial,” a husband and wife develop a barrier created by the death of their child. The wife is upset about her husband’s lack of emotion, which causes her to have thoughts in her head questioning the relationship she has with her husband.

In the poem “Love and a Question,” there is conflict between man and man, as well as man and woman. According to Robert Frost’s wife, Elinor Frost, this poem describes “the dilemma a newly-married young farmer faces one cold evening when a tramp comes to his door and asks for shelter: should the farmer spoil his honeymoon by letting a stranger into his...

... middle of paper ...

...wife hopes he to be, since he is unable to give her love unconditionally. In “Mending Wall,” the speaker wants to befriend his neighbor and tries to do so, but his neighbor would prefer not to interact. In “Home Burial,” the husband is clearly not what the wife wants him to be since he will not show emotion in front of her. I think these three poems are a perfect example of Frost’s attempt to create conflict between people. I feel like he creates conflict in his narrative poetry to draw in the interest of the reader. All three of these poems hold a question: Which type of love will the stranger choose? Will the speaker and the neighbor really remain separate? Will the relationship between the husband and wife survive? Though Frost never gives a direct answer to these barriers, he fully grabs the attention of the reader, thus making them eager for an answer.

Show More
Related

  • Comparing The Lover Not Taken, by Blanche Farley and The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost

    958 Words  | 2 Pages

    Frost, Robert. “The Lover Not Taken.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan et al. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2007. 696-697.

    Read More

  • Mending Wall And The Great Gatsby

    642 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both authors explore the progressive attitudes and how these were received during the time period of both Fitzgerald and Robert. Frost presents this idea in the poem, ‘Mending Wall’. The poem is about two neighbours who every year go to the end of the garden to meet and build a wall together. However, one neighbour is confused as why there needs to be a wall as there is nothing that needs to be divided or prevented from escaping or entering. This neighbour begins to challenge the other neighbour, ‘why do they make good neighbours?’

    Read More

  • The Meaning Of Misdirection In Poetry, By Robert Frost

    1145 Words  | 3 Pages

    Our speaker seems a solemn individual. One, whom explores a city alone and by night, a favorable past time for anybody who does not want to be bothered. Yet, as evidenced in the form of the poem, our speaker seems to feel a spark of excitement when human interaction becomes a possibility within our story. However, it seems that our poet, Robert Frost, displays an uncanny knack for misdirection throughout the entirety of this poem, and unless we meticulously pick this poem apart, we may miss the real meaning behind Frost 's words. Case in point: At first glance, this poem, about a lonely individual, appears to focus on their desire for human companionship, but, just perhaps, our speaker is actually loath to admit his true feelings, that companionship is what they desire the least.

    Read More

  • The Deterioration Of Marriage In Robert Frost's Home Burial

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    Robert Frost’s dramatic poem Home Burial depicts two tragedies: the loss of an infant and the deterioration of a marriage that follows. The emotional dialogue characterizes husband and wife with their habits of speech, illustrating the ways that they deal with grief. Instead of comforting her in her distress, the husband attempts at every turn to force his wife to cease grieving. The unnamed farmer’s inability to console his wife, who seems to feel so much more deeply the loss of her child, combined with her inability to see any feeling at all in her husband’s actions, contribute to a conflict that seems unresolvable by the end of the poem. But Frost’s diction suggests that it is the husband’s style of communication, not his method of grieving, that is the true cause of the vast distance between the two.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Robert Frost's Mending Wall

    1175 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his poem 'Mending Wall', Robert Frost presents to us the thoughts of barriers linking people, communication, friendship and the sense of security people gain from barriers. His messages are conveyed using poetic techniques such as imagery, structure and humor, revealing a complex side of the poem as well as achieving an overall light-hearted effect. Robert Frost has cleverly intertwined both a literal and metaphoric meaning into the poem, using the mending of a tangible wall as a symbolic representation of the barriers that separate the neighbors in their friendship.

    Read More

  • Tension and Conflict in Mending Wall

    2528 Words  | 6 Pages

    The conflict in "Mending Wall" develops as the speaker reveals more and more of himself while portraying a native Yankee and responding to the regional spirit he embodies. The opposition between observer and observed--and the tension produced by the observer's awareness of the difference--is crucial to the poem. Ultimately, the very knowledge of this opposition becomes itself a kind of barrier behind which the persona, for all his dislike of walls, finds himself confined.

    Read More

  • Comparison and Contrast How Death Effects Lives of Men and Women

    665 Words  | 2 Pages

    Furthermore, this couple will get divorced because of their opposite thoughts. Men and women are two different species, and sometimes those differences stand in a way of their relationships. It is obvious that the characters in this poem can not find any equilibrium in their feelings. Every action of these characters showed negativity, which predicted their final separation.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Traditions In 'Mending Wall'

    1631 Words  | 4 Pages

    The poem “Mending Wall” begins by the narrator telling is that there is a wall that is constantly being taken down by nature, and the narrator and his neighbor have to keep re-building it. But as the poem progresses, the narrator becomes unsure with himself, and begins to say that there is a wall “There where it is we do not need the wall” (23). He starts to question why a wall is there, knowing that he can never get across it to his neighbor. As the poem keeps progressing, he learns that the wall is there because of his neighbors tradition from his father, and he ends up saying “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall that wants it down (35), and he is talking about himself. In the progression of this poem, we see the narrator’s character change from someone who is persistent to someone who has hatred for what he is doing. He becomes more aware, having an epiphany, learning that there is truly no need for a wall, and it is only there because his neighbor is following his father’s tradition that requires him to keep the wall up. Through this characterization, we see that by only one side having hatred for the other, it can cause a division between them, because one person disagrees with the other. Through this poem, we see many character changes amongst the narrator, but one character that stays the same

    Read More

  • Life and Death in Poetry

    2084 Words  | 5 Pages

    Life and death are two things that we as humans must all face. The road from one to the other, from life to death, is a long and at times, both joyous and painful one. Robert Frost’s poems are a prime example of these times and trials. The poems I chose for this paper highlight them, and with Frost’s allegory, they present a sort of silver lining to the string of dark and dreary words he’s pieced together for these poems. The depressing tone to the poems “Acquainted with the Night”, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, and “Stopping by the Woods on a Snowing Evening” could be attributed to the death of many of Frost’s family members, and how despite this he overcame it all, and at the end of his life, was a successful writer. These poems to not go into great explanation of the details of Frost’s life, however, I believe that they are representations of the things path that he’s walked, and how he viewed his actions and death in general.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of 'The Mending Wall' By Robert Frost

    1164 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his poem 'Mending Wall', Robert Frost presents to us the ideas of barriers between people, communication, friendship and the sense of security people gain from barriers. His messages are conveyed using poetic techniques such as imagery, structure and humour, revealing a complex side of the poem as well as achieving an overall light-hearted effect. Robert Frost has cleverly intertwined both a literal and metaphoric meaning into the poem, using the mending of a tangible wall as a symbolic representation of the barriers that separate the neighbours in their friendship.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Home Burial By Robert Frost

    1630 Words  | 4 Pages

    In “Home Burial” by Robert Frost, Frost portrays an argument between a couple and examines the grief two individual’s go through along with their response to each other’s grief. The poem follows a married couple and illustrates a confrontation between the two concerning their feelings towards the loss of their son, but the confrontation later reveals a deeper problem in their relationship. Frost, drawing inspiration from his own life experiences, utilizes these characters to portray that individuals have differences that cause them to respond differently to grief and how having to alter such things to please another can cause a rift in any relationship. Specifically, Frost portrays the unraveling of a relationship.

    Read More

  • The Psychology of Robert Frost’s Nature Poetry

    3049 Words  | 7 Pages

    Lynen also states that “the struggle between the human imagination and the meaningless void man confronts is the subject of poem after poem” (6). On speaking of Frost’s nature poetry, Gerber says, “with equanimity Frost investigates the basic themes of man’s life: the individual’s relationships to himself, to his fellow man, to his world, and to his God” (117). All of these...

    Read More

  • Frosts Life as a Poet

    2469 Words  | 5 Pages

    Frost’s early years in life were very adverse. Frost’s father, who named the boy after his idle Robert E. Lee, met his wife in Pennsylvania while they were both teaching at Bucknell Academy. William Prescott Frost Jr. and his wife Isabelle Moodie married and moved to San Francisco where Robert was born. William Frost was a Harvard graduate and was the city editor for the San Francisco Daily Evening Post. Frost’s family moved a good amount and his father, who had serious drinking problems, died of tuberculosis in 1885 and left his mother and younger sister with very little money after burial expenses. The Frost’s returned east to live with the paternal grandparents, but soon moved to Amherst, New Hampshire to stay with his great-aunt. Shortly after this the family returned to Lawrence, Mass. where Robert was placed in school as a third grader. Frost graduated here as co-valedictorian with Elinor White. Though he was moved often and had troubles with his father in his young life, Frost still maintained good grades and two years before he graduated Frost had “La Noche Triste” printed in the high school bulletin. This was his first printed poem. Two years later Frost graduated and read a speech titled “A Monument to After-Thought Unveiled” (Faggen, xi). This marked the end of Frost’s childhood and the beginning of his adulthood and the many decisions that came with it.

    Read More

  • Walls Placed on Relationships in Mending Wall by Robert Frost

    846 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the poem "Mending Wall," Robert Frost utilizes the literary devices of imagery, meter, and symbolism to demonstrate the rational and irrational boundaries or metaphoric "walls" humans place on their relationships with others. The precise images, such as the depiction of the mending-time ritual and the dynamic description of his "old-stone savage armed" neighbor, serve to enhance our enjoyment as well as our understanding of the poem (40). The poem is written in blank verse (iambic pentameter); the form that most closely resembles everyday English. Frost deliberately employs this direct, conversational, and easy to understand style of meter which appears simple on the surface. Although symbolism is used throughout, the three most significant symbols are: the wall, his neighbor, and Frost himself as the speaker. Analyzing each of these devices as well as how they harmonize with one another is necessary in order to appreciate what Frost was revealing about human behavior.

    Read More

  • The Dark Side of Robert Frost’s Nature

    2355 Words  | 5 Pages

    The vivid imagery, symbolism, metaphors make his poetry elusive, through these elements Frost is able to give nature its dark side. It is these elements that must be analyzed to discover the hidden dark meaning within Roberts Frost’s poems. Lines that seemed simple at first become more complex after the reader analyzes the poem using elements of poetry. For example, in the poem Mending Wall it appears that Robert frost is talking about two man arguing about a wall but at a closer look the reader realizes that the poem is about the things that separate man from man, which can be viewed as destructive. In After Apple Picking, the darkness of nature is present through the man wanting sleep, which is symbolic of death. It might seem that the poem is about apple picking and hard work but it is actually about the nature of death.

    Read More

More about Robert Frost's Love and a Question, Mending Wall, and Home Burial

Open Document