Home Burial as a Reflection of Reality
Robert Frost's "Home Burial" is a masterfully written work, conceived from his and his wife's anguish at the loss of their first-born son as well as from the estrangement between his sister-in-law and her husband due to the death of their child. In Donald J. Greiner's commentary on Frost's works, "The Indespensible Robert Frost," it is revealed that "Mrs. Frost could not ease her grief following Elliot's death, and Frost later reported that she knew then that the world was evil. Amy in "Home Burial" makes the same observati Often it seems that writers have their own personal inspiration that fuels a great work to cause its readers to realize the complexity of the human nature. Robert Frost's "Home Burial" is a masterfully written example of such works, conceived from his and his wife's anguish at the loss of their first-born son as well as from the estrangement between his sister-in-law and her husband due to the death of their child. In Donald J. Greiner's commentary on Frost's works, "The Indespensible Robert Frost," it is revealed that "Mrs. Frost could not ease her grief following Elliot's death, and Frost later reported that she knew then that the world was evil. Amy in "Home Burial" makes the same observation". "Home Burial" illustrates the cause of the failing marriage as a breakdown of communication, both verbally and physically, between two people who adopt totally different views in the midst of crisis.
Amy does not believe that her husband is in mourning over the death of their child. Her view can be defended by the fact that she is feeling unimaginable pain that she justly feels is unique to the nurturing nature of a mother. The child tha...
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...eir ability to talk normally to eachother, but also because the physical side of their marriage is absent. Touch is a form of communication that the total absence of alone can destroy a loving union. Frost leaves the reader with a realistically portrayed image of their marital turmoil reaching a height as Amy opens the door, ready to walk out on the marriage. The melancholy conclusion to Frost's work ends up being the result of failed communication.
"Home Burial" is unfortunately a reflection of the reality that many marriages fail in the event of a child's death. A lack of communication, both verbally and physically, tears apart two people even without a tragedy as profound as the one that Frost and his wife experienced. Frost's work is an expression of the more serious and traumatic side of nature and reveals the consequences of inevitable human flaws.
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)
The funeral was supposed to be a family affair. She had not wanted to invite so many people, most of them strangers to her, to be there at the moment she said goodbye. Yet, she was not the only person who had a right to his last moments above the earth, it seemed. Everyone, from the family who knew nothing of the anguish he had suffered in his last years, to the colleagues who saw him every day but hadn’t actually seen him, to the long-lost friends and passing acquaintances who were surprised to find that he was married, let alone dead, wanted to have a last chance to gaze upon him in his open coffin and say goodbye.
Through an intimate maternal bond, Michaels mother experiences the consequences of Michaels decisions, weakening her to a debilitating state of grief. “Once he belonged to me”; “He was ours,” the repetition of these inclusive statements indicates her fulfilment from protecting her son and inability to find value in life without him. Through the cyclical narrative structure, it is evident that the loss and grief felt by the mother is continual and indeterminable. Dawson reveals death can bring out weakness and anger in self and with others. The use of words with negative connotations towards the end of the story, “Lonely,” “cold,” “dead,” enforce the mother’s grief and regressing nature. Thus, people who find contentment through others, cannot find fulfilment without the presence of that individual.
...s that have a much defined rhyme scheme. Therefore, the poem becomes a more serious and personal epilogue to seal the past behind him, perhaps, having therapeutic aspects for Frost himself in retelling the grief they (Frost and his wife) went through. The title of the poem ‘Home Burial’ itself could be read as a double-entendre; these being the death and the burial of a child and the symbolic death of a marriage. An alternative narrative line has been concluded by Benjamin West saying ‘The true subject of the poem – from a biographical perspective – is the death of Frost’s nephew, child of his sister-in-law Leona White Harvey, in 1895. It was her relationship with her husband that inspired the poem.’ (West:2011). This alternative opinion conveys that ‘Home Burial’ is not about Frost’s own life although many other critics conceive it is about the death of his son.
Common among classic literature, the theme of mortality engages readers on a quest of coping with one of the certainties of life. Katherine Anne Porter masterfully embraces the theme of mortality both directly and indirectly in her story, “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall.” Understanding that all mankind ultimately becomes subject to death unleashes feelings of dread and anxiety in most people; however, Granny Weatherall transitions from rushing to meet her demise in her sixties to completely denying she is on her deathbed when she is eighty. Readers have seen this theme of mortality reverberated over and over in literature, but what makes this story stand the test of time is the author’s complexity. In Katherine Anne Porter’s
Poe has written a several different stories relating to being buried alive, “The Premature Burial” and “The Cask of Amontillado” being the most popular. Edgar Allan Poe “was one of the seminal American poets and short story writers of the nineteenth century” he was an influencer for writers like Charles Baudelaire and Jules Verne. Poe lost both of his parents as a child and was raised with a foster family and lost his foster mom early, too. He lost many of his loved ones throughout his life including his wife shortly after he was married. All of these losses had a significant effect on him and influenced his stories ("Edgar Allan Poe - Biography"). “The Cask of Amontillado is a well-known piece of literature by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe’s many losses were said to be somewhat of an influencer for many of his short stories. Dramatic irony in Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” is a strong feature of his poem reflecting the poets personal feeling about isolation in death. We the readers are exposed to the dramatic irony when we are shown Montresors plans for Fortunato.
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
Looking back on the death of Larissa’s son, Zebedee Breeze, Lorraine examines Larissa’s response to the passing of her child. Lorraine says, “I never saw her cry that day or any other. She never mentioned her sons.” (Senior 311). This statement from Lorraine shows how even though Larissa was devastated by the news of her son’s passing, she had to keep going. Women in Larissa’s position did not have the luxury of stopping everything to grieve. While someone in Lorraine’s position could take time to grieve and recover from the loss of a loved one, Larissa was expected to keep working despite the grief she felt. One of the saddest things about Zebedee’s passing, was that Larissa had to leave him and was not able to stay with her family because she had to take care of other families. Not only did Larissa have the strength to move on and keep working after her son’s passing, Larissa and other women like her also had no choice but to leave their families in order to find a way to support them. As a child, Lorraine did not understand the strength Larissa must have had to leave her family to take care of someone else’s
"The boundaries which divide Life and Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where one ends, and where the other begins?" Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial (Bartlett, 642). To venture into the world of Edgar Allan Poe is to embark on a journey to a land filled with perversities of the mind, soul, and body. The joyless existence carved out by his writings is one of lost love, mental anguish, and the premature withering of his subjects. Poe wrote in a style that characterized the sufferings he endured throughout in his pitiful life. From the death of his parents while he was still a child, to the repeated frailty of his love life, to the neuroses of his later years, his life was a ceaseless continuum of one mind-warping tragedy after another.
Cognitive Behavioral therapy (CBT) is the only form of therapy used at the VA because it is an EBP. The VA has found that CBT is the most effective form of therapy for Veterans. The VA and DOD have stated that CBT is a “first line treatment” for Veterans when it comes to depression (Hundt, Barrera, Robinson, & Cully, 2014,pg. 942). Morland, Greene, Grubbs, Kloezeman, Mackintosh, Rosen, & Frueh, (2011) also states that CBT has been shown to be effective with those who are diagnosed with
Famous children’s author Dr. Seuss once said, “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind". Gay rights, at the moment, are one of the most publicized and well known controversial subjects of this decade. The sides clearly drawn one fighting for rights as simple as being married the other stating that it defames their religion and goes against the definition of marriage, being between a man and a woman. The individuals who are fighting for their civil rights are fallowing the same path that African Americans and women have taken, but the change has started and in over 13 states gays have been given their basic rights and more state are joining in the fight both for and against the topic.
In “Home Burial,” Robert Frost uses language and imagery to show how differently a man and a women deal with grief. The poem not only describes the grief the two feel for the loss of their child but also the impending death of a marriage. Frost shows this by using a dramatic style set in New England.
The life of Edgar Allan Poe was one often colored by tragedy. These tragedies were a strong source of influence for his writings and likely contributed to his focus on the bleaker aspects of life. Born in 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts, Poe’s life with his biological family was short lived. His father, David Poe, left the family only two years after his birth, and shortly after in December 1811, his mother Elizabeth Poe died from illness leaving him an orphan (Quinn 47). The death of a parent at such a young age is something that would undeniably have a profound impact on anyone’s psyche. In the case of Poe, the death of his mother and later the serious illness, and subsequent death of his wife, Virginia, could be seen as one of the strongest motivations for his focus on death and obsession over loss (Quinn 496). This unfortunate childhood was compounded by the difficult relationship Poe had with his foster parents, John and Fanny Allan (Dhahir). Poe’s ...
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.