A Look at Grief in Home Burial
The poem, "Home Burial" by Robert Frost, tells of a child that was buried not long in the past and of the sorrow of the wife and husband. The husband's grief is not as apparent as the wife's heartache. The husband has become accustomed to his feeling, but the wife is reminded every time she passes the stairway window. In the Bedford Introduction to Literature, it asks the the questions, "Is the husband insensitive and indifferent to his wife's grief?.... Has Frost invited us to sympathize with one character more then the other?"
I must be wonted to it--that's the reason. I never noticed it from here before. So, I do sympathize with him a little more then her, but Frost's way of writing this story leaves it open to lean either way. I guess the only reason I pitied him is because I can relate. Also, I feel for him because the wife does not see that her pain is hurting him. Every time he tries to keep the wife, comfort her, or discuss the problem she tries to leave. Not so much larger than a bedroom, is it?There are three stones of slate and one of marble,Broad-shouldered little slabs there in the sunlightOn the sidehill. The little graveyard where my people are!So small the window frames the whole of it. When the wife was getting mad at the husband, yet the husband had not idea what the problem was. At first, my compassion is for the wife. From the tone of the poem they do not talk about the child or the ever building strain of the window. As for the second question, the sympathy shifts, or at least that is my view of it. "The wonder is I didn't see at once. Frost's way of describing the wife, just made my heart feel for her, but then the first shift in favoritism accrued.
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Introduction Literature,
Robert Frost,
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husband insensitive indifferent,
insensitive indifferent,
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