Recurs Through a Few Works: Essay

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As William Henry Davies would have averred, "… we have no time to stand and stare…" Frost describes, at length, how a young boy might have enjoyed himself swinging along the boughs. Certainly, one boy might have not been able to have bent several boughs. Frost does realize the cause of the bending of the boughs. It is the weight of the ice that collects on the boughs that causes them to bend. But a man can wish, can't he?

In "Mending Walls," Frost celebrates the notion of solitude. He twice mentions, "fences make good neighbors;" this is despite what one hears very often in modern parlance that, one should build bridges, not fences." The poem is interplay between two individuals or two opposing concepts. One is about the protection of one's privacy and the celebration of solitude. The opposing view supports the notion of community living and the need for communication and togetherness. "No man is an island." One view seems to say. The other side counters, "Parting makes the heart grows fonder."

One of the key quotes in the poem comes from the protagonist, the one that is seeking to tear down the wall. The protagonist is concerned while building walls, wondering who is being "walled in" and who is being "walled out." But her neighbor is confident that there will not be a break in communication because of the wall. The implicit comment is that solitude is good and that over-familiarity breeds contempt. In "Home Burial," the solitude is forced. This is despite the fact that two individuals who live together and are married are alone.

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It is not the lack of love or communication that forces them to be alone. It is the loss of a loved one. The child is recently dead. The husband and wife are alone simply because they have grieved differently. According to Elizabeth Kubler Ross, there are five stages of grieving. The final stage is one of acceptance. This typically marks the end of grieving, where the bereft is ready to move on with his or her life. This does no mean that the sadness ends.

In "Home Burial," the child's grave site can be seen from the upstairs window. For the wife the grief is fresh and the pain of loss keeps coming back. One way the husband has been able to deal with the grief is by digging the grave. The husband is reconciled to the fact that dying is part of living -- the cycle of life. He is sad, but he realizes that life goes on. The wife's grief on the other hand is not synchronous with that of her husband. The husband is ready to "be there" for his wife. He seeks to console her and explain his place in the scheme of grief. This lack of synchronicity is what causes the turmoil among the couple, as "Home Burial" illustrates.

One theme that is a constant in this essay, through the works of Frost, Thoreau and Emerson is the celebration of being alone. This solitude is chosen by an individual or forced….....

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