Home Burial

Today, we are going to read Robert Frost's "Home Burial" and discuss how it fits the Modern Period.  This is probably Robert Frost's most disturbing poem and taken with T.S. Eliot's "Prufrock" one of the best that we will read.

Before we begin let's talk a little about who is Robert Frost and what makes a poem?  What do you know about Robert Frost?

Here's a link to a reading of the poem - in case you need to listen to it again: Home Burial

Go HERE for the POEM

Questions from Shmoop! 

1. What do you think happens to the couple after the end of the poem, and why?
2. Which character in this poem do you identify with more, and why?
3. Do you agree with what the woman says in lines 101-109, that no matter what people pretend, everyone dies alone? Why, or why not?
4. Which character do you think has the most power in this relationship? Does the power shift as the poem progresses? How so?
5. Do you agree or disagree with the woman's disgust at the man's manner of digging their son's grave (lines 75-92)? What's your reasoning?
6. What's the effect of having most of the poem in dialogue? Would you have rather come at it from the wife's perspective? Or the husband's?