Home Burial Analysis Essay Example

has the burial of the child within sight of the stairway window affected the relationship of the couple in this poem? Is the child’s grave a symptom or a cause of the conflict between them? The grave of the child serves as a constant reminder of the couple’s loss. It has impeded their healing hindering their movement towards the world of the living. Likewise, it has divided the couple into two separate individuals rather than a married couple, blocking the communication that is of vital importance when it comes to constructing a happy and healthy marriage. In other words, frost wants for the reader to witness the breakdown of a marriage (the burial of a home, expressed in the title’s double meaning), but most importantly, this is a breakdown of human communication.

For those reasons I do not believe that he child’s grave is a symptom or a cause of the conflict between them, instead is the different ways in which they choose to deal with the grief and outlook on death and life. In addition, I believe the child’s death which is a tragedy indeed, brought out the already underlying issues between the couple. The discontentment with each other, the lack of empathy, the broken dialogue, the sexual tension, etc…all are some of the underlying issues hunting this couple since before the child’s death. Consequently, the death of the child made the already broken relationship to deteriorate faster, forcing them to confront their true feelings and reclaim their lost sense of self.

3. What is the effect of splitting the iambic pentameter pattern in lines 18 and 19, 31 and 32, 45

and 46, and 70 and 71? The effect of splitting the iambic pentameter pattern allows for the conversation to emerge between them. Usually using an iambic pentameter pattern only has an effect if it is read aloud. Iambic pentameter affects how the rhythm of the line goes when it is read. In this poem the poet uses unrhymed iambic pentameter to point out the stressful situation between the wife and husband. In addition, the effect that Frost intended to create is to transmit to the reader the environment in which this couple lives in.

An environment where stress between wife and husband has become part of their everyday living. For example, in lines 31 and 32 we clearly see how the conversation going on between them turns stressful. Frost uses the long stressed syllables to mark such dialogue, “Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t,” she cried. (Lines 31,32). Whereas in lines 45 and 46 we see the same kind of broken dialogue happening. Furthermore, is almost as if with the splitting of the iambic pentameter and the syllables used the wife manifests the sadness, bitterness, and resentment that she has allowed herself to grow inside of her. Frost breaks the sentences to make more vivid the broken marriage, as well as the broken dialogue in which the couple engages in. In this manner Frost achieves his purpose of transferring the reader into the world of these broken and hurting couple.

4. Is the conflict resolved at the conclusion of the poem? Do you think the husband and wife will overcome and wife will overcome their difference? This drama clearly lacks closure. It does not seem

to have resolved at the conclusion of the poem. In other words, the poem ends with lines “Where do you mean to go? First tell me that. I’ll follow and bring you back by force. I will!-“(lines 119, 120). The word “by force” gives the reader a sense that conflict and denial is still present between the couple. Much so that if the husband had to utter those words to his distress wife, then clearly he feels as if he is the reason she is leaving the household and nothing else. On the contrary, the wife seems to be dealing with a much more in depth issue, one which the husband may never fully comprehend, the grave of her child.

I do not believe that the couple will ever overcome their differences while living in that house where the child’s grave can be seen from their window. The constant reminder and fear which the scene inflicts upon the mother is too heavy of a burden to carry. Similarly, when comparing the house to the child’s grave we can see how the wife has allowed their house to become a living grave. Therefore, I believe healing for this couple can only be possible with the willingness to commence a new beginning, and opening up a new window. Not the window which leads into death, but one which leads to life!