An Analysis of Imagery and Setting in Robert Frost’s Home Burial

Robert Frost is deemed a single of the greatest American poets of the 20th century. His writings have been lauded for their pastoral imagery, emotional depth, and their masterful use of America colloquialism. Frost’s poem, Home Burial, is an exquisite mixture of these elements, exploring the depths of emotional suffering and its effect on marriage. The poem is framed in the kind of a deeply emotional dialogue in between husband and wife over the coldness of their marriage in the wake of the death of their young son. Property Burial is Robert Frost’s semi-autobiographical retelling of his youngest son’s death and the impact this tragic occasion had on his own marriage. Robert Frost’s poem, Home Burial, makes use of the setting and exquisite imagery in order to create the relationship among Amy and the husband.

The poem Home Burial takes location in the rural New England nation side. The setting is an critical part of understanding the poem, as the New England tradition of property burial takes a prominent part in the poem’s story. Back in the 1800’s, it was common for deceased loved ones members to be buried close to the family members property. Because residences typically stayed inside the household, small cemeteries spanning numerous generations were a typical sight. At the really beginning of House Burial, Amy is looking outdoors of the window, seeing the tiny family graveyard that lies on the outskirts of the home. Her unnamed husband describes this little plot of land as, “the spot where my individuals can be found”, confirming that this is certainly a family members cemetery.

Amy is quite significantly distraught by the sight of the graveyard, while her husband is a lot more comfortable with the idea. As she appears at the graves with a terror stricken face, Amy’s husband tells her, “Broad shouldered tiny slabs there in the sunlight on the hill side. We haven’t to mind these.” The way the husband speaks about the graves tells the reader of the husband’s familiarity with the sight of the tombstones, and how its a typical sight for him. This might imply that Amy is truly a foreigner, and therefore it may be disturbing to her to have a continual reminder of the dead. If she came from the city, this would explain why Amy finds burying her personal youngster to be a disturbing event (Burns 11). This implies that Amy is not quite utilized to the New England tradition of residence burial.

When Home Burial was written in 1914, child mortality rates have been really high. It was common for kids below the age of five years old to die due to disease. The poem presented a really genuine worry to the early 20th century reader, that they might indeed have to bury their young child. The poem’s setting offers the reader insight into how the diverse characters in the poem experience their loss. The husband had currently noticed three generations of family buried in the identical plot he had buried his child, so the reader can surmise that he is intimately familiar with death. Amy on the other hand is mortified by the continuous reminder of the graves.

The New England setting of the poem assists to make apparent the differences in between the two characters, which sets the conflict in the rest of the operate. This parallels Robert Frost’s own encounter when he had to bury his youngest child Elliot at the age of eight years old. It is likely that Frost himself employed house burial, as his household lived in rural New England. This encounter would bring considerable strain to him and his wife’s marriage, inspiring the events of Residence Burial.

Home Burial uses sturdy imagery to show the tension amongst Amy and her husband. The poem is told in the form of a conversation amongst the husband and wife. As such, Frost’s description of the character’s actions, feelings, and movements aids give the reader an insight into the characters beliefs, thoughts, and the nature of their relationship. Each characters are suffering from the loss of their young son, but how they grieve differently is the primary result in of the conflict between them. The character’s action are full of meaning from how the husband buries his son, Amy’s reactions to her husband, and the graveyard imagery employed.

At the starting of the poem, when the husband notices Amy hunting out via the window, he asks, “What is it you see?” The poem then describes the husband begin mounting up the stairs as Amy cowers. This provides the reader insight into the partnership in between the husband and wife. He is shown as the oppressor, and she as the oppressed (Little 111). The husband completely overpowers and subdues his wife, telling Amy to declare what she sees, as an alternative of phrasing it in the kind of a question. “I will find out now, you have to tell me dear,” the husband declares as he tends to make his way up the stairs. When he realizes that Amy is seeking out at the mound, Amy pleads with the husband to stop. The husband’s powerful posturing, such as placing his knuckles to his chin, betray his accurate feelings. He himself is suffering tremendously from the loss of his kid, saying “Let me into your grief. I’m not so considerably as opposed to other people as your standing there apart would make me out.” The husband’s aggressive body language and angry demeanor is basically how he expresses his grief.

Amy on the other hand grieves really differently. The image of the husband burying their dead youngster weighs heavily on Amy’s thoughts. The reader is offered insight into this by way of her description of how she sees the burial occur. “I saw you from that extremely window there, Producing 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 believed, Who is that man? I didn’t know you.” To Amy the husband buried their child with little to no feeling. He does the act in a matter of fact style, which to Amy seems practically inhuman. His words after the burial only serve to condemn him further in her mind, “Three foggy mornings and a single rainy day will rot the very best birch fence that a man can construct.” Even though the husband is speaking metaphorically about how time (the rain) destroys all of man’s accomplishments (his son), Amy takes him to be speaking actually about a fence. This infuriates her, as she feels as even though the husband does not care about the death of their son. What she doesn’t understand is that he is grieving in his own way. This inability to comprehend every other is what drives the conflict between the two characters (Faggen 128).

In summation, the poem Home Burial utilizes the setting and imagery in order to create the partnership between Amy and the husband. The rural New England setting is essential, simply because the tradition of residence burial is what initially exposes the differences in between Amy and the husband. Amy is implied to be a foreigner, and as a result she is not as intimately familiar with death as her husband. This difference is one of the reasons that the characters are unable to acknowledge the others type of grieving. Frost’s descriptions of the husband offers the reader insight into how he grieves. Unlike Amy, the husband does not overly exhibit emotion or speak about his pain. His discomfort is shown through his anger and physically imposing demeanor. The inability to understand every single other is the principal failure in their connection. Robert Frost does an remarkable job of bringing the reader into the intimate lives of these two characters through great use of setting and exquisite use of imagery.





















Functions Cited

Burns, Allen. The Thematic Guide to American Poetry. Greenwood Press, 2002. 90-94. Print.

Faggen, Robert. Robert Frost:The Challenge of Darwin. University of Michigan Press, 1997. 215-245. Print.

Little, Michael. How to Write: About Robert Frost. Bloom’s Literary Criticism, 2010. one hundred- 114. Print.