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- Failed Marriage in Frost’s Poem -
The poem “Home Burial” by Robert Frost chronicles an episode in what appears to be an ongoing struggle between two people to cross a void of misunderstanding. At this point in their relationship the man can only threaten to follow and bring the woman back with force. It is a poem of pain, of loss, of being along. The poem shows two people who have fallen far away from each other. In the void that is their relationship they are alone. The poem leaves one with the question that Vladimir asks Pozzo near the end of Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting For Godot, “What do you do when you fall far from help?” Pozzo answers, “We wait till we can get up. Then we go on.” The action in “Home Burial” is of a man trying to enter the solitude of his wife’s grief. There are several reasons why this grief is not shared with her husband. If tragedy, like the loss of a baby, happens to a couple grief must be shared; it must be communicated. The couple have fallen far from each other’s help and understanding. The unshared grief that has caused the failure of the relationship is caused by a breakdown in communication between each other and of compassion for each other. Real communication involves understanding. Without this communication the man and the woman are left alienated and alone. As a result they throw blame at one another and not even the threat of force will convince the woman to stay.
We immediately see the alienation from each other’s pain that both husband and wife feel. Her fear is constantly over her shoulder and she retraces her steps for another look. Her husband wants to know what she sees. She not only refuses to tell him but also refuses to help him despite his constant entreaty. She is ...