Hired Man

Death of a Hired Man is one of Frost's longer works. All but a few lines are dialog between Mary and her husband Warren about Silas, an old itenerant worker who comes to their farm when he needs money. Only this time Mary senses that there is something different. Silas looks old and unwell, and is rambling on about things that happened on the farm years before. She's pleading with Warren to let Silas stay that this is home for him, even though he has a rich brother that is a banker who lives nearby. This is where the greatest point of impact is. It's in these for line that haunt:

"Home is the place where, when you have to go there,

They have to take you in."

"I should have called it

Something you somehow haven't to deserve."

The meaning of home lies somewhere in these words for all of us. For Silas it was the farm he went back to year after year where he found someone to take care of him despite some of the things he'd done. It was the place he wanted most to be when he died. It was the only place where he felt he ever made a difference with others.

Frost's halmark imagery is evident in his ability to paint the farm with his dialog between two characters and have it seem like a normal if intense conversation. His keen understanding of people is evident in Warrens gruff exterior and Mary's compassion. This piece is found in many anthologies of madern american writers as one of his bests works, and I have to agree.