Robert Frost’s poem “Home Burial” allows readers to consider the devastation that parents experience when they lose a child. “Home Burial” captures the differences in the ways people deal with loss and grief. Munaza Hanif, Anila Jamil, and Rabia Mahmood also analyze this fascinating poem in their paper, “AN ANALYSIS OF HOME BURIAL (1914) BY FROST IN PSYCHOANALYTIC PERSPECTIVE” for its representation of people and their grief. Hanif, Jamil, and Mahmood’s analysis of Amy’s psychological breakdown displays how she and her husband’s lack of communication leads to the death of the marriage. To begin, the husband and wife’s lack of communication in their relationship is made evident within the first few lines, and Hanif, Jamil, and Mahmood feel …show more content…
The wife is dismissive of the husband’s effort to rebuild the bridges that once spanned between them, and the husband is distressed when he says, “My words are nearly always an offense” (Frost 45). The authors of the analysis feel that instead facing her husband and the death of her child she avoids the memories and her husband as they write, “Her tireless performance of watching out of the window is illustrative of escapist to memories of the past…” (Hanif, Jamil, and Mahmood 10). They summarize, “Amy cause of unconscious level of mind (mental disorder) also becomes the cause of death of his marriage already she had lost his child” and by this statement Hanif, Jamil, and Mahmood imply that her inability to accept reality will overcome the husband’s pleas for …show more content…
Amy cries, “Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t” when her husband begins to speak about the dead child, and this does back up the idea that she is unable to reconcile reality with her emotions (Frost 30). They also explain the realistic grasp the husband has on this situation when they say, “ ‘The little graveyard where my people are! /So small the window frames the whole of it.’ At the present, the things of the past are condensed into a mere window to the past” (Hanif, Jamil, and Mahmood 10). The husband establishes himself as a more practical and realistic character when he is identified as a farmer and is shown doing the necessary steps to bury the dead child. As a character that is so realistic the husband cannot understand why Amy, the wife, is so distraught so long after the funeral. Amy believes him to be unable to understand when Frost writes, “She let him look, sure that he wouldn’t see” (Frost 15). The practicality of the husband makes Amy feel like she is unable to share her sorrows with him. Through these explanations of the characters Hanif, Jamil, and Mahmood effectively show how the husband and wife’s relationship is quite strained as they write, “According to his husband’s point of view the
This blues poem discusses an incredibly sensitive topic: the death of Trethewey’s mother, who was murdered by her ex-husband when Trethewey was nineteen. Many of her poetry was inspired by the emotions following this event, and recounting memories made thereafter. “Graveyard Blues” details the funeral for Trethewey’s mother, a somber scene. The flowing words and repetition in the poem allow the reader to move quickly, the three-line stanzas grouping together moments. The poem begins with heavy lament, and the immediate movement of the dead away from the living, “Death stops the body’s work, the soul’s a journeyman [author emphasis]” (Tretheway 8, line 6). Like the epitaph from Wayfaring Stranger, Trethewey indicates that the dead depart the world of the living to some place mysterious, undefined. The living remain, and undertake a different journey, “The road going home was pocked with holes,/ That home-going road’s always full of holes” (Trethewey 8, line 10-11). Trethewey indicates that the mourning is incredibly difficult or “full of holes”, as she leaves the funeral and her mother to return home. ‘Home’ in this poem has become indicative of that which is not Trethewey’s mother, or that which is familiar and comfortable, in vast contrast to the definition of home implied in the
Her family life is depicted with contradictions of order and chaos, love and animosity, conventionality and avant-garde. Although the underlying story of her father’s dark secret was troubling, it lends itself to a better understanding of the family dynamics and what was normal for her family. The author doesn’t seem to suggest that her father’s behavior was acceptable or even tolerable. However, the ending of this excerpt leaves the reader with an undeniable sense that the author felt a connection to her father even if it wasn’t one that was desirable. This is best understood with her reaction to his suicide when she states, “But his absence resonated retroactively, echoing back through all the time I knew him. Maybe it was the converse of the way amputees feel pain in a missing limb.” (pg. 399)
Despite the basic requirements for human’s survival, personal relationships should be added because not many people are able to function well without intimate relationships with other people or valuable things. Due to this fact, grief occurs when there is a loss either through death, divorce, or theft or when something valuable to an individual can no longer be reached. Grief is that period of time when loss is felt acutely, and the feelings of loss are still very raw to the person. This paper is based on the book Lament for a Son, which was written by Nicholas Wolterstorff, a collection of narratives by this author who is going through grief due to the premature death of his 25-year-old son, Eric, who died in an accident while climbing a mountain.
Louise, the unfortunate spouse of Brently Mallard dies of a supposed “heart disease.” Upon the doctor’s diagnosis, it is the death of a “joy that kills.” This is a paradox of happiness resulting into a dreadful ending. Nevertheless, in reality it is actually the other way around. Of which, is the irony of Louise dying due to her suffering from a massive amount of depression knowing her husband is not dead, but alive. This is the prime example to show how women are unfairly treated. If it is logical enough for a wife to be this jovial about her husband’s mournful state of life then she must be in a marriage of never-ending nightmares. This shows how terribly the wife is being exploited due her gender in the relationship. As a result of a female being treated or perceived in such a manner, she will often times lose herself like the “girl
Then, the authors switch to the past story of Bishop family in Braintree, along with tragic death of Amy 'sibling, Seth. The structure of this essay help readers better understand the psychological development of a young girls Amy Bishop, and the external influence has created an Amy Bishop today. After the death of Seth, Keefer mentioned about the lack of mental therapy, counseling or absent of Psychiatric evaluation, and most important, the over protection of Judy, Amy’s mother, to avoid her child from being in jail. Amy did not receive enough mentally help, and a heavy psychological shadow has created a mental defect later in her life. "Amy continued to eat meals in the kitchen where her brother had die, and to walk past his bedroom with old woodworking project bore the chiseled letters S-E-T-H.” This quote is very important, because imagine if you were Amy, and living in an environment that is always reminiscent of the worst memories! It will ruin anyone's soul. In later investigate, Amy said that she felt stress, hallucinations, and "hear the voice" off and on, but her family did not aware of such changes. This detail is similar with other mass shooting in the United States, the lack of sophistication to recognize the "walking bomb." The purpose of Keefer's essay is to look at the past of a mass shooter, we can understand their motives, and
Amy states, “I’ll do any or everything to get a baby” (77). Her eagerness leads her to seek solace in another man, Holland Winchester. This adulterous affair results in an ill-conceived child. Billy is not a trouble-making man until trouble finds him shortly after he discovers the affair between his wife and Holland. Billy asks Amy angrily, “Whose child is it?” (116) and he eagerly waits for Amy’s reply. Amy replies Billy, “It’s my child, Billy. But it can be ours if you want” (118). After hearing this, Billy truly doesn’t know what to do and he takes a promise from Amy that she will never be with Holland again. Thus, though Billy is angry at his wife at one moment, he doesn’t want to loose her wife, so he compromises the situation. Moreover, Billy also tries to understand Amy’s situation and remembers how Amy chose him to be her husband regardless of his abnormal leg. Figuring out all situation, Billy forgive his wife and accept her child as his own. Thus, Billy is a good man who understands and loves his wife and becomes a hero for his
In the eulogy that President John F. Kennedy gave for the lately departed poet, Robert Frost, only three out of the four common elements that Kunkel and Dennis found in eulogies can be found in this specific eulogy. The elements I found in this eulogy are positive reappraisal, praise, and problem-focused coping while self-disclosure of emotion, credibility, affirmation of vivid past relationships, and continuation of interactive bonds could not be found. John Kennedy imminently starts off with a positive reappraisal: “Robert Frost was one of the granite figures of our time in America. He was supremely two things—an artist and an American,” (lines 3-4). Kennedy is telling the thousands listening that Robert Frost not only had a good life but
Imagine that the person you love most in the world dies. How would you cope with the loss? Death and grieving is an agonizing and inevitable part of life. No one is immune from death’s insidious and frigid grip. Individuals vary in their emotional reactions to loss. There is no right or wrong way to grieve (Huffman, 2012, p.183), it is a melancholy ordeal, but a necessary one (Johnson, 2007). In the following: the five stages of grief, the symptoms of grief, coping with grief, and unusual customs of mourning with particular emphasis on mourning at its most extravagant, during the Victorian era, will all be discussed in this essay (Smith, 2014).
Robert Frost had a fascination towards loneliness and isolation and thus expressed these ideas in his poems through metaphors. The majority of the characters in Frost’s poems are isolated in one way or another. In some poems, such as “Acquainted with the Night” and “Mending Wall,” the speakers are lonely and isolated from their societies. On other occasions, Frost suggests that isolation can be avoided by interaction with other members of society, for example in “The Tuft of Flowers,” where the poem changes from a speaker all alone, to realizing that people are all connected in some way or another. In Robert Frost’s poems “Acquainted with the Night,” “Mending Wall,” and “The Tuft of Flowers,” the themes insinuate the idea of loneliness and isolation.
The characters in this story can’t comprehend perilous situations. The main character’s wife, Mildred, is unable to understand the significance of death, “She’s gone for good. I think she’s dead. Run over by a car four days ago” (Bradbury 41), when referring to her neighbor who had just died. Mildred says this without showing any emotion or sorrow. Unlike most caring people, Mildred didn’t comment on how sad or unfortunate her neighbor’s death was. Mildred is an example of how desensitization can rule the way we act. On the other hand, Mildred’s husband, Montag, is one of the few characters in this book who show sympathy. This is the reason, “He had chills and a fever in the morning” (Bradbury 42). Montag didn’t feel well because he can’t help but feel blue when thinking about his neighbors tragic death. The author Ray Bradbury explains Montag’s state of being to show the contrast between a desensitized person like Mildred and a sympathetic person like Montag. This theme is a problem found in most humans. For example, in today’s society we cheer for the violence in sports. We cheer for the big hits or checks without thinking twice. In this instance, Mildred might not have intended to be rude but her desensitized personality kept her from realizing what she was saying. If humans like Mildred cannot care for others’ feelings or have sympathy, then how can they be “perfect?” Therefore, if
Instructor Mendoza English 1B 22 July 2015. Robert Frost: Annotated Bibliography. Research Question: What are the common themes in Robert Frost's work? Robert Frost is a very successful poet from the 20th century, as well as a four time Pulitzer Prize winner.
...ple. The way that Frost uses body language, shows how distant that the couple is becoming. There are many ways that people can handle grief, this poem is just one way that two people handle their lost. “Home Burial” also gives the “morbidness of death in these remote place; a women unable to take up her life again when her only child has died. The charming idyll” (Robyn V. Young, Editor, 195).
Death is a natural and inevitable part of life. Everyone will experience death, whether it is of a loved one or oneself. In W.H. Auden’s poem “Funeral Blues” (1003), he describes such a catastrophic event and the drastic effect that it has on his life. It is interesting how people choose to accept this permanent and expected event, death. Similarly, Emily Dickinson has written many poems about death, such as “The last Night that She lived” (843), which describes a family waiting for a woman or girl to die and the dreary and depressed mood that exists within the household. Mourning is considered a perfectly healthy reaction when someone who is deeply loved and cared about passes on, and this is illustrated in “The Memory of Elena” (1070-71) by Carolyn Forche. She writes about the events following a funeral and also flashes back to the actual moment that a wife has watched her husband die. W.H Auden’s “Funeral Blues,” Carolyn Forche’s “The Memory of Elena,” and Emily Dickinson’s “The last Night that She lived” are all poems which share death as their subject matter, but differ in the fact that they discuss death in a unique style with a variety of literary devices to make them more effective.
Losing a loved one is one of the hardest experiences every person must go through. The experience does not end with the loss though, but begins with it. The loss of a dear person leads those left behind into a downward spiral of emotions and memories. A poem entitled “Lucy Gray” by William Wordsworth focuses on that loss and the emotions that follow it. By reading the poem one can objectively experience both the grief that Lucy Gray’s death brings on but also her parents’ acceptance of her death.
Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden is a short poem that illustrates the emotions that he is dealing with after the love of his life passes away. The tone of this piece evokes feelings that will differ depending on the reader; therefore, the meaning of this poem is not in any way one-dimensional, resulting in inevitable ambiguity . In order to evoke emotion from his audience, Auden uses a series of different poetic devices to express the sadness and despair of losing a loved one. This poem isn’t necessarily about finding meaning or coming to some overwhelming realization, but rather about feeling emotions and understanding the pain that the speaker is experiencing. Through the use of poetic devices such as an elegy, hyperboles, imagery, metaphors, and alliterations as well as end-rhyme, Auden has created a powerful poem that accurately depicts the emotions a person will often feel when the love of their live has passed away.