Female Character in Robert Frost\'s Poem, \"Home

¶ … female character in Robert Frost's poem, "Home Burial."

Frost's poem "Home Burial" tells the story of two people torn apart by the loss of their first-born child, a son. Amy, the woman in the story, is nameless until we read at least half the poem. We know she is a woman, because Frost refers to her as "she," and talks about the way she is dressed. "She turned and sank upon her skirts at that, And her face changed from terrified to dull." Already we know that she is troubled about something, and her husband is concerned.

Amy is still grieving over her son that seems to have recently died. She also is very angry with her husband, but she has not told him why. She seems a little afraid of him, but he seems to bend to her wishes. He says, "My words are nearly always an offence. I don't know how to speak of anything So as to please you. But I might be taught I should suppose. I can't say I see how. A man must partly give up being a man With women-folk."

He feels that he gives up some of himself for her, but she thinks he has acted without caring when he buried their child, and she cannot forgive him. "If you had any feelings, you that dug With your own hand -- how could you? -- his little grave; You could sit there with the stains on your shoes Of the fresh earth from your own baby's grave And talk about your everyday concerns."

He does not seem to even comprehend what she is talking about, and seems to gloss over this event that has bothered her so. "There, you have said it all and you feel better. You won't go now. You're crying. Close the door." It is clear that he does not understand her, and she does not understand him. This event in their lives has pushed the two of them apart, and it does not seem as if they will come together again.

Frost makes Amy's sentences disjointed and choppy to make her appear near hysteria. He also seems to be saying that the baby's death has made her a little mad, and that the husband (who is never named) does not want to believe it. At the end, he tells her not to open the door, or he will come after her with force. This seems to be his solution to the relationship, to force it to go the way he wants it, using brute strength instead of understanding.

Perhaps that is why several times Amy cowers from him, or shrinks away from him, because she knows he always has gotten his way. He also patronizes her when he says, "I do think, though, you overdo it a little," as if she should wake up the next morning and get on with her life. Clearly, she cannot do this, and he is not as understanding as the poem would let on.