On Grief and Reason- Collin

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 structures within those stories. Brodsky describes Frost as "free... Dangerously so." Darkness seems to seep from the lines of his poem of "Home Burial," and Brodsky explains, "art doesn't imitate life, it infects it." These invasive factors add effect to how much poetry is affected by the authors emotion. Brodsky's argument in its simplest form is that; all aspects of the the poem, physical and literal, the voice of the husband, wife, and the voice of the narrator are all derived from Frost. The characters actions and Frost's deeper meaning represent very well the foundation of Brodsky's argument. 

Comments

  1. Mrs. MacFebruary 27, 2018 at 2:26 PM

    Talk a little bit more about what this deeper sense of meaning is. But I think you are on to something with this inner darkness--coming both from the poems and from Frost.

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  2. UnknownFebruary 27, 2018 at 5:41 PM

    I thought it was interesting to see how Frost used personal experiences within his poetry. Brodsky demonstrates how this is genius; but also, he discusses how the poems now carry a new weight within them and how this impacts the reader even more. It allowed me to apply Frost's experiences when reading the poem. While it certainly added layers to the poem, most of them dark, it also made the poem more enjoyable to read. The ideas became more alive and the characters more real. I think maybe that is what makes Frost's poetry so great.

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  3. Phillip MurphyFebruary 27, 2018 at 6:22 PM

    The part of your post that I love the most is how you said that Frost's emotions went into the poem, but at the same time the poem is used to evoke emotions from the reader. It makes reading the poem seem more like a transfer of feeling and idea than just "a story". I know this sounds like a stretch, but it kind of reminds me of the way Tralfamadorian books were meant to convey a single experience, an emotion.

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