Home Burial

By Robert Frost

He saw her from the bottom of the stairs

Before she saw him. She was starting down,

Looking back over her shoulder at some fear.

She took a doubtful step and then undid it

To raise herself and look again. He spoke

Advancing toward her: ‘What is it you see

From up there always—for I want to know.’

She turned and sank upon her skirts at that,

And her face changed from terrified to dull.

He said to gain time: ‘What is it you see,’

Mounting until she cowered under him.

‘I will find out now—you must tell me, dear.’

She, in her place, refused him any help

With the least stiffening of her neck and silence.

She let him look, sure that he wouldn’t see,

Blind creature; and awhile he didn’t see.

But at last he murmured, ‘Oh,’ and again, ‘Oh.’

‘What is it—what?’ she said.

‘Just that I see.’

‘You don’t,’ she challenged. ‘Tell me what it is.’

‘The wonder is I didn’t see at once.

I never noticed it from here before.

I must be wonted to it—that’s the reason.

The little graveyard where my people are!

So small the window frames the whole of it.

Not so much larger than a bedroom, is it?

There are three stones of slate and one of marble,

Broad-shouldered little slabs there in the sunlight

On the sidehill. We haven’t to mind those.

But I understand: it is not the stones,

But the child’s mound—’

‘Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t,’ she cried.

She withdrew shrinking from beneath his arm

That rested on the banister, and slid downstairs;

And turned on him with such a daunting look,

He said twice over before he knew himself:

‘Can’t a man speak of his own child he’s lost?’

‘Not you! Oh, where’s my hat? Oh, I don’t need it!

I must get out of here. I must get air.

I don’t know rightly whether any man can.’

‘Amy! Don’t go to someone else this time.

Listen to me. I won’t come down the stairs.’

He sat and fixed his chin between his fists.

‘There’s something I should like to ask you, dear.’

‘You don’t know how to ask it.’

‘Help me, then.’

Her fingers moved the latch for all reply.

‘My words are nearly always an offense.

I don’t know how to speak of anything

So as to please you. But I might be taught

I should suppose. I can’t say I see how.

A man must partly give up being a man

With women-folk. We could have some arrangement

By which I’d bind myself to keep hands off

Anything special you’re a-mind to name.

Though I don’t like such things ’twixt those that love.

Two that don’t love can’t live together without them.

But two that do can’t live together with them.’

She moved the latch a little. ‘Don’t—don’t go.

Don’t carry it to someone else this time.

Tell me about it if it’s something human.

Let me into your grief. I’m not so much

Unlike other folks as your standing there

Apart would make me out. Give me my chance.

I do think, though, you overdo it a little.

What was it brought you up to think it the thing

To take your mother-loss of a first child

So inconsolably—in the face of love.

You’d think his memory might be satisfied—’

‘There you go sneering now!’

‘I’m not, I’m not!

You make me angry. I’ll come down to you.

God, what a woman! And it’s come to this,

A man can’t speak of his own child that’s dead.’

‘You can’t because you don't know how to speak.

If you had any feelings, you that dug

With your own hand—how could you?—his little grave;

I saw you from that very window there,

Making the gravel leap and leap in air,

Leap up, like that, like that, and land so lightly

And roll back down the mound beside the hole.

I thought, Who is that man? I didn’t know you.

And I crept down the stairs and up the stairs

To look again, and still your spade kept lifting.

Then you came in. I heard your rumbling voice

Out in the kitchen, and I don’t know why,

But I went near to see with my own eyes.

You could sit there with the stains on your shoes

Of the fresh earth from your own baby’s grave

And talk about your everyday concerns.

You had stood the spade up against the wall

Outside there in the entry, for I saw it.’

‘I shall laugh the worst laugh I ever laughed.

I’m cursed. God, if I don’t believe I’m cursed.’

‘I can repeat the very words you were saying:

“Three foggy mornings and one rainy day

Will rot the best birch fence a man can build.”

Think of it, talk like that at such a time!

What had how long it takes a birch to rot

To do with what was in the darkened parlor?

You couldn’t care! The nearest friends can go

With anyone to death, comes so far short

They might as well not try to go at all.

No, from the time when one is sick to death,

One is alone, and he dies more alone.

Friends make pretense of following to the grave,

But before one is in it, their minds are turned

And making the best of their way back to life

And living people, and things they understand.

But the world’s evil. I won’t have grief so

If I can change it. Oh, I won’t, I won’t!’

‘There, you have said it all and you feel better.

You won’t go now. You’re crying. Close the door.

The heart’s gone out of it: why keep it up.

Amy! There’s someone coming down the road!’

‘You—oh, you think the talk is all. I must go—

Somewhere out of this house. How can I make you—’

‘If—you—do!’ She was opening the door wider.

‘Where do you mean to go? First tell me that.

I’ll follow and bring you back by force. I will!—’

"Home Burial" is one of Robert Frost's longest and also his most sad and emotional one. This poem tells the story of a married couple who are fighting with each other about their dead child. Its mostly written in dialogue, so it sounds like two people talking to eachother. The poem consists of subjects of love, grief and death making readers thinks about these subjects in a new and different way.

Meaning

Fact of the poem: The two main characters in this poem are; Amy (wife) and her husband.

This poem starts with a husband watching his wife, Amy while she walks down the stairs. She pauses to look over her shoulder through the window, where she sees the family graveyard. Slowly the man realizes that Amy is looking through the window to see their child's grave. Then as the man walks upstairs to talk to her, she does every she can to avoid having a conversation with him about their dead child. She is feeling trapped and wants to leave the house altogether. The husband then tries to convince Amy to talk to him, but he doesn't ever seem to be able to talk to her without angering her, as the couple communication issues. Amy however, is heart broken about the loss of her child and doesn't seem to understand how her husband can seem so fine with the death of their child. She assumes that he is fine because he is in no grief about it. Through the conversation we can understand that both the man and the woman have very different perspectives about life, relationships and death. Far away from solving the conflict, the wife opens the door to leave, but her husband threatens to go after her and bring her back. Here the story ends. Frost purposefully leaves the poem as a cliffhanger to let readers interpret their version of what will happen afterwards, if Amy the woman manages to leave or stays in the house.

Overall, there are at least two tragedies here: the death of a child, which antecedes the poem, and the collapse of a marriage, which the poem foreshadows.

Meter, Structure and Rhyme

When looking at the poem, at first sight many interpret that because it is a dialogue which written in communication language between a husband and a wifes it has no meter but Frost has given "Home Burial" a little bit of a pattern. The poetic term for such a poem is: blank verse, this means that the poem is written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. Frost did not keep the metrical pattern in this poem simple, it varies. Mostly all lines of this poem consist of 5 stressed syllables this comes into the characteristic of iambic pentameter. Although there are some lines where he strays from this meter. Frost has used a touch of poetic meter in his poem; "Home Burial" but there is no evidence of rhyme.

Setting

The setting of this poem is at an old house with a graveyard out back, within view of the window. Below that window there is a stairway, leading to an entryway. On these stairs and in the hall is where most of the poem takes place. Also we know that the kitchen is very close to the stairs because the woman can see her husband from the stairs. So we have got a relatively big house. The woman is standing on the stairs looking out of the window while the man is standing at the bottom of the stairs looking up towards his wife. This is the setting in which the married couple fight.

Point of view

The poem is written in 3rd person narrator, who gives us the description and sets the scene in the lines of the poem. This narrator does not seem to have personality of his own, he doesn't seem to be biased on one way or the other in this fight between husband and wife. All the speaker seems to be doing is, telling us facts about what the husband says the wife and what the wife says back to the husband.

Mood and Tone

The tone of this poem shows the author's attitude towards the subject and here Frost is displaying how a couple can be very bad together. From what I can understand he is showing that life can be quite depressing and emotional when a child of a couple dies. Also, the couple is angry and aggressive with each other and everything else, the couple is very tense and broken and I think that Frost was showing everyone what the death of a child does to a family.

The mood of this poem is what the reader feels towards the poem. As a reader, the mood of the poem is grief and depressing and aggressive.

Themes

Communication- "Home Burial" takes place as a dialogue, but the couple don't do a lot of communicating. At first, the woman barely speaks to her husband, then she slowly opens up but the husband hardly listens to her. In other words the poem is a fight not a conversation. From what Frost is trying to imply in the poem, the communications between the wife and the husband is equally related as the events in the couple's life.
Power- As the couples "discuss" or "fight" about the painful subject of "Home Burial," the power in the relationship shifts between the two. Sometimes the husband has the power over the wife and sometimes it is the other way around which makes it very interesting. While they are fighting about their dead child, they are also fighting to have control over the conversation and their relationship.
Sadness- Both of the characters the man and the woman have different ways in which they address their grief. The man seems to be able to carry out his everyday life, while the woman is heartbroken about the death of their child. Throughout the poem you can see that the she get offended that the man and the father of the child shows no grief of the dead child. In the end, it comes down to the fact that they don't understand each other's sadness, as a man and wife should.
Gender- "Home Burial" published in 1914, woman were not even allowed to vote. The different gender's in this poem complicates the power relationships, this makes the emotional connection between the two characters even more difficult. Although given the time, where women were not treated as equal, the wife makes several derogatory comments towards the man and the same reversed.
Death- In this poem, death plays a big part actually it is the biggest element being discussed in the room. Death colours every line of the couples conversation, but they barely ever mention the word. But death is a really important theme here, it is the subject driving a wedge between the two.
Acceptance- Nearing the end of the poem the man realizes that he cannot speak to his wife without hurting her. Slowly he accepts that he will probably not be able to, but he still does not want to lose her. He also admits to himself that he truly cares about her and wished he could share her grief. Then a few lines away from the end the man admits that he cannot get through to his wife however hard he tries, showing an indication that he is giving up and accepting the relationship between the husband and wife.

Figure of Speech

This literary technique is defined as a technique where one says something but doesn't mean it literally. An example of this from this poem is when the narrator says, (line 16) "Blind creature; and a while he didn't see." When the woman calls the man a "blind creature" she is not referring to his eyesight, but his inability to understand in emotions and feelings of his own wife.

Metaphor

There are two very important metaphors in this poem that play a big part in the story and its meaning. First is the staircase, the staircase is a way in which the narrator is showing power, while the person standing at the top is controlling and leading and the bottom is the one who is not leading but observing and listening. When the man is standing on the staircase on a step above the woman he is showing that he is more powerful that her and the same vice versa. The second important metaphor is the house in which they are having this fight, the house can be seen as a prison for those inside. For example, when the wife says that she is about to leave the house, her husband tells her not to move and threatens her not to leave, giving us the hint that they don't go outside very much and that the man definitely does not want his wife to go out, putting her in a sort of prison.

Symbolism

Staircase, the top of the stairs- The positioning in which the husband and wife are standing on the stairs shows the differences and the imbalance between the two characters. The one at the top of the stairs having more power of the other, where the woman's husband stays throughout most of the poem to maintain power.

Window- The window plays a huge role, when the woman looks out to see the view of the graveyard where along with three others, her dear child is buried. Also, everytime she looks through this window she is reminded of how her husband dug the grave in which the child's body was placed inside. Therefore, the window symbolizes as a sort of time capsule, every time she looks through it, she is reminded of the past memories of her dead child.

Fight- the couple's fight about their dead child seems to symbolize the their lack of communication and the number of issues they have as partners.

Enjambment

Taking a look at the lines: 1 and 2, "He saw her from the bottom of the stairs / Before she saw him. She was starting down." The thought from line one continues to line two where the 3 person narrator says "before she saw him." This pause, in between the thought, could be hinting that it was the husband's intentions to start this fight, or to bring up this subject with the woman as the man looked at the woman before she looked at him. This device is used several more times in the poem to give two separate parts of the "thought", importance.

Personification

This literary device is used a few times in this poem. One example is when the Frost says, "she took a doubtful step." Here Frost is giving the "step" a human attribute of doubt and hesitance. Then later in the poem Frost once again uses this device when he is talking about the graveyard outside the couple's house. When the man refers to the gravestones as "three stones of slate and one of marble" he also adds that the gravestones are "broad-shouldered little slabs there in the sunlight." He is clearly talking about the gravestones here yet he is giving the gravestones a human characteristic; "broad-shouldered." This could suggest that he is thinking about the ones buried under the stones, knowing they are broad shouldered added the fact that they are buried outside his house, this could suggest that the ones buried could be family or relatives. At the same time by "broad shouldered" he could just be referring to the grave stones being wide.

Assonance

Assonance in this poem is used as a technique to describe the woman's stress and pain. An example of this is on line 32, when the woman "cried", "Don't, don't, don't, don't," the repeated sound of the o's in "don't" give an effect to the importance and severity of the pain she is feeling towards the recent death of the child. This reaction was provoked by her husband while he describes the "child's mound." On line 111 the narrator says, "Oh, I won't, I won't!" the repeated o's in this line give emphasis and describe her despair and sadness.

Poetry Analysis