Discuss How Robert Frost Uses His Poems 'Home Burial' & 'Mending Wall' To Show The BreakdownIn Human Communication

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Robert Frost Poetry Coursework

Jack Harrison

Robert Lee Frost was an American Poet born in San Francisco, his life spanned from March 26th, 1874 to January 29th, 1963. He moved to New England with his family when he was eleven years old. He discovered his love of reading and writing poetry during his high school years when he was in Lawrence, Massachusetts. After Harvard he began writing his own poetry but it was only after his conference with the poet Edward Thomas in London that he truly discovered his voice. On his return to America he published two collections of poems, the most famous of which was 'North of Boston'. The two poems I will be looking at are 'Home Burial' and 'Mending Wall'.

The very first thing I noticed about the two of these poems is that they are both examples of the breakdown of communication between people. The first poem 'Home Burial' is an example of an eclogue. The title 'Home Burial' has both connotations of a warm, comfortable home and also a burial, which is both related with death and mourning. It is on the whole written in dialogue but has some narrative. The second poem 'Mending Wall' and its title have meanings on human communication also. "Mending" meaning to fix and also it is present tense meaning it's ongoing and "Wall" is an object that can be used either as a barrier between humans or something to keep them together. Many people say this poem is Frost's 'most enduring and most typical dramatic monologue

I will look at 'Home Burial' first and display Frost's ideas on human understanding and contact first. By starting the poem with 'He' this already seems to make the man the main character even though 'her' is at the top of the stairs making her the more dominant of the two. She in unconscious of him, but when she realises he might be there she 'looks over her shoulder at some fear' however if they are married why does she fear him? He then asks her "what is it you see from up there always? - for I want to know." (at this point the dominant role is passed onto him) which shows that they have never actually talked about why she always looks out that window until that moment. At the same moment she no longer fears him and her faces turns from 'terrified' to 'dull' when she realises he is only being curious. However he then asks her again and mounts over her until she is cowering meaning she fears him. This shows that he feels the only way to get it out of her is to frighten her. But this contradicted right away when he says "I will find out now - you must tell me, dear." The use of the comma and word 'dear' shows that he is now trying to appear as non-threatening to her. However even this doesn't work as she 'refused him any help'. She seems very stuck to being misunderstood and even when he tries to help her, she will not help, in the hope that he will discover it himself but she knows he won't. She even lets him look out knowing that he won't see because he is a 'blind creature'.
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However after a while of looking out he says "oh [...] it's just that I can see. However by this point the word 'see has lost a lot of its meaning by being repeated so often. "But even after saying this she challenges him on what he sees by saying "you don't [...] tell me what it is"

He then launches into how he would have noticed it, had it not blended in with the background. But whilst talking he upsets her by talking about their child in the grave almost in passing. "It's not the ...

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