Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Form and Meter
Sure, this may be a dialogue, written in normal-folks language, between a husband and a wife, but that doesn't mean Frost didn't flex his metrical muscles in "Home Burial."Yep, this poem is written...
Speaker
We hear from a few different speakers in this poem. First, we've got the third person narrator, who gives us lines of description and sets the scene. This narrator doesn't have much personality of...
Setting
Although we're getting most of our info in the dialogue of two characters, we get a ton of information about where this poem goes down. For one thing, this poem was originally published in a collec...
Sound Check
This poem reads more like a play than a typical poem. It's chock full of dialogue, which sounds like, well, people talking. And these people talk, for the most part, just as real people would talk....
What's Up With the Title?
The poem centers on an event that we don't even witness, and don't even learn about until we're many lines in—the death and burial of this couple's first child. The husband's family graveyard is...
Calling Card
While Frost's poems are often read as uplifting (think "The Road Not Taken"), there's almost always a lonely, dark side to them. Though we see two characters interacting in this poem, they are, at...
Tough-o-Meter
This poem is written in plain and clear English, but it's long. Plus, sometimes, it's hard to keep track of who is speaking when, and what exactly is going down underneath the surface of their word...
Trivia
Sure, North of Boston may be all about New England, but Frost wrote the book in Jolly Old England, while living there with his family. (Source.)Here's another geographical surprise. When you think...
Steaminess Rating
No sex here, folks. Just a dead kid and a broken marriage.