Robert Frost - Home Burial

Robert Frost?s ?Home Burial? is a tragic poem which presents an engrossing, intensely empathetic scenario as it deals with the lack of communication between husband and wife on the loss of their first child which is slowly leading to a breakdown of their marriage as they are incapable of sharing their grief. Written in colloquial language and including a variety of emotions from isolation to anger to bitterness, the poem is intensely analyzed narrative that enables the reader to realize the complexities of human nature

In the poem, the staircase provides a backdrop to the scene of emotional frustration. The poem begins with the wife, Amy on top of the stairs, and the husband at the bottom which indicates the emotional gap existing between. ?He saw her from the bottom of the stairs, before she saw him.? She was about to go down, but something stopped her and she remained on top and looked out of the window once again. It was the husband who took the first step towards her, indicating his attempt to communicate with her as he enquired what it was she would always look at from the window. On realizing he was there ?her face changed from terrified to dull? for she was ?sure he wouldn?t see.? He pleaded with her to tell him as he is determined to find out. But she remained stubborn and resisted him ?with the least stiffening of her neck and silence.?

When the husband went up to the window, for ?a while he didn?t see? what she saw, but he did finally. She of course wouldn?t believe he saw what she did, and challenged him to tell her. But, he claimed it never struck him as he had never noticed it from there before. ?I must be wonted to it ? that?s the reason.? The window looked out to the family graveyard where his ancestors were buried. But the other graves there didn?t matter it was ?the child?s mound? what she was staring at all this while. Here is the first indication that the couple has lost a child, only recently as the child?s grave hasn?t even been...