25 pages • 50 minutes read
Home Burial
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Symbols & Motifs
Burial of the “Home”
Critics often remark on the symbolism of Frost’s title, “Home Burial.” The catalyst for the couple’s estrangement is clearly the burial of their child in the family cemetery, which comes as a consequence of the child’s death. The title also refers to the moment of estrangement in which Amy sees the husband’s physical act of digging the child’s grave as a betrayal of love. This in turn leads to Amy’s need to escape the house, which serves as her metaphoric burial of that which makes a marriage complete: trust and communication. In this way, the warmth of home is buried between the couple, and the house becomes an empty shell of what it once was.
The Window at the Top of the Stairs
One of the primary symbols in “Home Burial” is the small window at the top of the stairwell. Windows obviously allow someone to peer inside of a house and look upon whatever lies outside. The couple’s argument begins with what Amy sees outside the window, and whether the man sees the same thing. When Amy looks out the window, she sees the graveyard and is reminded of her child’s death—and by extension, what she views as her husband’s callous grave-digging. When the husband looks out, he recognizes that the view of the child’s fresh grave triggers Amy’s pain, but he can’t sense her feelings about his involvement.
His comparison to the cemetery being like a “bedroom” (Line 26) shows he might not understand the intricacies of her despair. If the child were alive, he would be asleep perhaps, in a bedroom in the house. For Amy, the window serves as a symbol that the son’s death constantly invades her inner space, or mind. It has come to frame her primary view of the world. Because one of the major themes of the poem is the difference in perception and expression, the window serves as both an objective object that one looks through (a simple window) and a loaded symbol of what one looks at (the child’s death and for Amy, her husband’s betrayal).
The Weather and the Fence as Metaphor
Amy is upset when just after digging his son’s grave, the husband resumes ordinary conversation with someone else in the house. The husband states to his unknown companion, “Three foggy mornings and one rainy day / Will rot the best birch fence a man can build” (Lines 96-97). Amy finds it heartless because, as she notes, “What had how long it takes a birch to rot / To do with [the death of their child]” (Lines 99-100). Most critics take this as the husband’s metaphoric articulation of how natural processes, such as bad weather and death, can destroy even “the best […] a man can build” (Line 97), which could include a happy home and family. Birch is an extremely strong wood but might have hidden weaknesses, much like himself and his family. While Amy sees that the “world’s evil” (Line 110), the man is more resigned to the fact that life has processes that we cannot control. Both can be true, but these statements show how each character views death.
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By Robert Frost
