2017-18 AP LIT READING BLOG

Brodsky begins his essay by discussing the poem Come In. He moves through the poem chronologically, and describes the differences that can be seen by individually analyzing each word. His analysis of the poem serves to highlight the fact that Robert Frost is “as American as apple pie.” His basis for this is the distinction between tragedy and terror, and which category Frost falls under. He believes that Frost’s difference from the “Continental tradition of the poet as a tragic hero” is what makes him “American”. The second poem he analyzes is Home Burial . His analysis of this poem was unlike anything I understood from my own experience with reading and discussing it. He repeatedly calls the wife the “heroine” yet also displays many of her qualities which contrast this claim. A “heroine” is generally a woman in a literary work who exhibits great courage or achievements, but this description does not match Brodsky’s analysis at all. He contrasts the characters by “grief and reason”, t...

In Brodsky's On Grief and Reason , he explores the similarities between two Frost poems, "Come In" and "Home Burial." He dives into a deep analysis of the two and focuses on tiny details such as meter, rhyme, setting and tone to show that Frost has a common theme of darkness. I am interested in the way Brodsky writes, for he uses the informal "you" and speaks directly to the reader, persuading them to give their full attention. This helps the reader to connect with the author and bring them to a closer understanding of his complex analysis. He writes, "Let's leave that level as yet unnamed." I have heard Mrs. Mac uses phrases like this in class to persuade us to do something that we don't exactly want to do; I believe they are called subjunctives. Although his sophisticated diction and lengthy sentences are a little troubling at first, he is able to regain the reader's focus by having a conversation with them, instead of a lecture...

Brodsky's article presents a very  in-depth analysis of Frost and two of his works, "Home Burial" and "Come In," which he feels share the same curious attribute of being darker than Frost's other poems.  One way in which these present such a darker tone is in the way they portray human interaction and the language they use to reflect it.  Brodsky is saying that this culminates in a reflection of Frost personally and his life because Frost's own life experiences are what fueled his writings.  He discusses the various emotions, such as grief or fear, that lead to specific elements of the poems.  In fact, Brodsky would argue that every part of these poems were born from Frost's own personal experience, whether readers know it or not.  The lens most appropriate to this work would likely be psychoanalytical criticism.  As we stated in class, this is a notable subversion from new criticism, but I feel it is a good one.  While some of the individual deta...

Joseph Brodsky, in his article On Grief and Reason, analyses Robert Frost's more darker attributes in his poems "Come In" and "Home Burial", and the meaning of the poems as a whole. Brodsky notes that such darker poems are uncharacteristic of Frost, whom Brodsky refers to as "a folksy, crusty, wisecracking old gentleman farmer, generally of a positive disposition.", and that Frost's poems generally do not contain as much depth as these two, thus leading Brodsky to ask why these two are different. Brodsky's explanation for this is the difference between American and European poet's take on nature, for while a European may look at a tree and see a shared history and can create a story of its past, and have a generally positive view of nature and life, while an American views nature as not "friend or foe" but as "a meeting of equals. Man and tree face each other in their respective primal power...", and an American sees no ...

Brodsky's stance in "On Grief and Reason" is to analyze Frost's poems in a way to prove they provide more than the lightheartedness shown from the first read. The purpose is to prove Frost's poetry has deeper and darker meaning especially in Frost's poems. He supports this by using examples of the woman standing next to the man to show human interplay and how it relates to the reason poets use words. He says that language is the "most efficient fuel" which is true in both poetry human interactions in general. All of poetry has to be fully thought about and each word is chosen carefully to convey a specific message and feeling to it. The way Brodsky divides poetry into three roles and sets those roles to the poet himself helps to understand the way Frost thinks and why he writes how he does. Every word holds its own meaning and has its own purpose creating more than one meaning often shown in his poems. Something that confuses me is how Brodsky transi...

In the article "On Grief and Reason" Joseph Brodsky pulls apart the literal meaning from the figurative meaning in the works of the American poet Robert Frost. The meaning that Brodsky manages to unravel from the poems is grim at minimum. "Come In" and "Home Burial" reveal the inner suffering and pain that Frost seems to be struggling with. Brodsky states that "Home Burial" relies on the feelings of grief and reason--which all poetry leans upon. However, Brodsky also argues that grief and reason make up poetry's deeper sense of meaning. Which Frost utilizes in many of his poems in order to evoke multiple emotions from the reader. Brodsky supports this claim of Frosts inner darkness telling the audience to step back from the consuming plot and personal narrative. "The story line has been drawn from experience... what degree is he free from it?" Frost is able to write about the material, and is also able to create deep narratives and ...