Robert Frost Home Burial

Double Depression and Despair
In “Home Burial” by Robert Frost the speakers presents us with an emotional poem that tells the story of the burial of a child and the emotional differences that the parents engage in. With an absence of communication between the mother and father, and a failure to show compassion and empathy towards each other, we immediately see a marriage in distress. We will reflect on the imagery and tone the speaker puts forward in the poem to understand in what manner the couple is disengaging from one another.
The imagery created by the poet is robust. The visualization of Amy at the top of the stairs as the husband was watching her “up there “emphasizes a dramatic image of a grand stairwell, which is found in large homes (Frost 7). In addition, when he references the “little graveyard, so small the window frames the whole of it” this statement accentuates the size of the window (Frost 23-24). Suggesting that even though the graveyard is small the window is big. An additional image of distance and size of the home, is when the poet states “out in the
The hurt is obvious in her tone with her husband, as well as, in the way she acts towards him. “Mounting until she cowered under him” (Frost 11). Amy has no desire for condolences from her husband. She cries and just wants out of the home, away from the views of the mound and away from her husband who thinks she “overdoes it a little” (Frost 62). Amy’s tone is emotionally distraught with apparent depression. The husband’s tone appears quiet, the hurt is unfathomable and kept within. “Can’t a man speak of his own child he’s lost” illustrates how he aches (Frost 35). The speaker does not use the word we it is “he” and “his” which stresses the loss he occurs as well. Neither one truly understands the effect this lose has on the other. There is a “mixture of emotions – grief, fear, love, and anger” (Phelan,