Comment 17 of 17, added on December 3rd, 2009 at 9:13 PM.
Home Burial
It's a great dramatic poem of Robert Frost.it shows us how a dead child
creates the problem between the living persons......these two persons are
not someone else but they are his real parents...this poem shows a big
greif,mother can't accept it but father accepts the reality.......

Sabahat Batool from Pakistan

Comment 15 of 17, added on February 18th, 2009 at 4:36 PM.

This has long been one of my quriky "favorites." Not because it makes me
feel more and fuzzy, nor because some super-deep meaning looms below the
surface. But because of the flavor Frost captures. You can picture the
eyebrow colonial, on some dirt road 30 miles north of Concord, NH, circa
1900, pre-automobiles. No neighbors for half a mile or so. And the
oft-seen family plot on-site. A pragmatic, old Yankee farmer. A man who's
seen and done horror in his lifetime (euthanizing puppies, putting down
horses/dogs/etc, killing the meat they eat.) Who knows what he's seen in
his life? The world? The loss of siblings/parents? He is hard and
emotionally shut-off. He buries his emotions as he digs the grave. The
woman is, well, the mother--and a woman. Her pain and conflict over his
lack of emotion was possibly an issue before the death, but certainly rears
its head now. She had left the house before, presumably to fill the
emotional void he can't fill. Was the 'someone coming down the road' the
emotional friend? Or was he telling her to compose herself and "act right"
lest the neighbors see her bad behavior? In the end he shows his attempt
to communicate and listen was pretense. At the first obstacle, he
threatens physical control/domination.

Ward Hamilton from United States

Comment 13 of 17, added on October 20th, 2008 at 10:26 AM.

This poem is Dramatic lyric with smooth language and gentle tone.This poem
is extremely emotional in its medium.Basically this is a poem about a
couple whose first born baby has died.The husband has accepted the tragic
death but the wife is not able to take up her life again.This poem shows
their is grevious loss of communication between this couple and sad shadows
of their dead child alienates them more from each other.
The husband threw himself into the most difficult task of digging the grave
of his only child but wife thinks that he has been so unemotional while
doing such an act of digging the grave of his only child and putting him
into the grave
by
Hira Ali ,Department of English
Pakistan


Hira Ali from Pakistan

Comment 11 of 17, added on April 3rd, 2006 at 3:16 PM.

Merve I have to agree with you with all that is said!

After researching Frost, I have came to find out about his own loss of his
children. Throughout his life he had a lot of death that engulfed him. The
meaning of this is that everyone he cared for ended up dying earlier than
expected. His son Elliot died at age 4, his daughter Elinor Bettina died
when she was 3 days old, his wife suffers fom a miscarriage, two of his
daughters suffered mental breakdowns and died, and his son Carol committed
suicide. So I believe that Frost knew exactly what he wanted to portray in
this story. I believe that in the time this poem was wrote you have to
realize that the father would want the very best for his child in death and
that the mother did not understand what the father was trying to do. The
father built the casket for his son(it was his responsiblity to take care
of the burial while the mother mourns over the death of her child) as his
turn to mourn comes in later after his son's burial was complete! Why else
do you believe that he buried the child in his yard? He wanted to remember
his child always and keep him close, so he could oversee the care of his
grave. Yes, I agree with Merve, the Father has to mourn in his own way. As
for the Mother, she wants all the attention on herself and this keeps her
blinded from what her husband is actually doing for their son!

Kara from United States

Comment 9 of 17, added on February 6th, 2006 at 8:58 PM.

Writing a 5 page essay on frost, seriously it's not easy to do..theres not
much to say.. hopefully i can get some stuff out of this poem.
And it's from personal experience, that's what poems are expression of deep
feeling, obviously he's going to write about something as deep as his son
dying, he's a poet.

Jackie