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Akshay Wuppuluri

Moosman

IB LA HL

09 September 2021

Home Burial Analysis Assignment

The Home Burial poem by Robert Frost is a much longer poem than any of the other

ones that we have read. Although, this may not be seen as a poem when read as we see, when

we dive deeper into the poem, this looks more like a story with a narrator and two other

characters. This is a conversation between two people with some commentary in between

making it a story.

In this story there is a man and a woman who are husband and wife. The man sees his

wife sitting on the stairs and she sees him towering over her. The vibe here stays constant

throughout the whole poem as they tend to be scared, sad, and angry of and at each other.

They talk about their child that had passed away at a young age. This may have been through

misscarrge or in an accident or a condition that leads to death. As they talk about this they look

out a window. There the wifes face changes from “terrified to dull” showing just how much she

despises and blames her husband for this. They sit on the stairs and look at the grave of their

daughter, dug by the man. The man feels bad even though he doesn’t show it and the woman

insults and becomes angry with the man for not showing these feelings. They continue to

argue and talk to each other about how they feel and how they talk. The man then sees

someone coming toward them and asks the woman to not talk about this anymore. The man
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doesn't want to talk about his personal life in public but the woman won’t have it and decides

to leave. The man says that he will bring her back by force.

This is very similar to A Doll’s House as we see the main character, Nora, wants to leave

but is threatened by her husband to bring her back. Both these characters are seen as a woman

who has to listen to what the man says and by being quiet and submissive but both these

characters want to do what they want to do and they want to feel what they want to feel.