American Auther

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"Home Burial"

Home Burial is a poem written by Frost around 1914 after he suffered the loss of two of his children both at a very young age. The poem is a dramatic narrative about grieving after the loss of a child. The poem had a husband and a wife named Amy, who lost their first son. The couple could not understand each other as they were grieving in their way. In the poem, it appears that Amy has difficulty in moving forward after losing her son, and resulted in her lashing out at her husband in anger. The poem demonstrates how people grieve differently from one another.

Home Burial starts with the couple on a staircase; Amy is at the top, and the husband is at the bottom. By the end of the poem the husband is at the top of the stairs and Amy is at the bottom. Opposite ends of the staircase is an expression of how Amy and her husband had conflicting ways to deal with death and grief. As Amy is heading down the stairs, she keeps looking over her shoulder trying to see where her son is buried, but the husband is puzzled by her behavior. Amy is unable to look at her husband or to be touched by him as she would shrink away if he reached out. She was angry that her husband could bury their child's grave and dismisses the whole ordeal as if was an everyday task. Amy's grief causes her to lash out at her husband as she thought her husband was insensitive and unaffected by the death of their child.

Amy and her husband disagree about what is the right way to grieve; they each fail to recognize the other's grief. The husband suffers in silence and grieves on the inside. They are unable to find the right words to express how they feel so they are unable to console each other. He believes his wife will feel better by talking about it. She believes that talking is not enough.

The poem was left open ended as the couple did not resolve their issues. The wife had to leave the house to get some fresh air. She felt smothered by her husband and the house full of memories of their dead son. The husband feared that his wife would leave him for good if she left; however, he loved her so much that he would bring her back if needed. Dealing with the loss of a child, no matter the age, can be devastating to any family. The characters in the poem never could understand the other's grief or tried to understand each other feelings. Death can bring the family closer together, or it can tear them apart just as in the poem.

Robert Frost was such a talented American composer of poetry. He used his gifts to bring the words to life by using lyrical devices to amplify the characters and settings. His imagination brought depth to his words and challenges the reader into deep thought about life and which path he or she is destined to make. The poems, "The Road Not Taken," "After Apple Picking," and the "Home Burial," are only a small sample of the vast range of topics Frost used to inspire the readers. Robert Frost wanted his audience to be engulfed by his works and experience his or her revelation, so he or she can inspire others. Robert Frost is one of the most gifted American artists and his works still continue to inspire the generation to come.

References

Hoffman, T. (2003). Robert Frost. In R. Carlson, B. Ammerman, & J. Panini, The oxford

encyclopedia of American literature (pp. 71-83). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Moose, C. J. (Ed.). (1999). "Biography" History of the World: 20th Century. Retrieved

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Perkins, G., & Perkins, B. (2009). The American Tradition in Literature (12th ed). Mc Graw Hill

Poem hunter. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.poemhunter.com/robert-frost/biography

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