Home Burial

Robert Frost’s narrative poem centers on a pivotal moment between a couple whose young child has died, sometime after the home burial mentioned in the title. The couple cannot successfully communicate their feelings with one another, and the physical burial becomes emblematic of the burial of their personal connection. The scene opens in media res (“in the middle of things”). The wife, whose name is later revealed as “Amy” (Line 41), descends a staircase as the man enters and observes her from below. The distance between them is both real and figurative. There are several steps between them emotionally as they both try to manage grief. 

Amy does not initially realize the husband is there as she turns at the top of the staircase, staring “over her shoulder at some fear” (Line 3) out the window. Her husband sees her start down the stairs and then turn back to the view. She seems compelled to do so and is oblivious to anything except the window when the husband speaks. His dialogue reveals that Amy’s actions are familiar to him: “What is it you see / From up there always” (Lines 6-7). The husband makes it clear he “want[s] to know” (Line 7) what in particular is bothering her, but Amy cannot explain her inner thoughts and instead “[sinks] upon her skirts” (Line 8) in a gesture of fatigue.