On Grief and Reason--Lindsay McKelvey

Joseph Brodsky’s On Grief and Reason analyzes and explains two of Robert Frost’s famous poems, Come In and Home Burial. In the essay, Brodsky is able to identify prevalent themes and purposes in the poems by using today’s most common literary lens, New Criticism, as well as the Biographical lens. The brief biography of Frost gives readers and critics of Brodsky an understanding of why Frost has the reputation of being a “terrifying” poet, as well as an “American” and “Countryside” poet. Brodksy is able to explain Frost’s reputation through his analyzation of his poems. When focusing on Come In, he explains the “terror” hidden in the dark images of the poem. Home Burial practices similar dark elements of language but still echoes some things in Come In. Both poems exercise elements of nature and have similar devices making them unique to other poems, like naturistic diction, dark syntax, repetition, etc. These elements are used in every day poetry, but the way Frost uses them makes them unique from others.

Personally, I buy Brodsky’s argument, but I understand why one couldn’t. Some of his claims are confusing which does not help his ethos. I thought he used strong claims to support how Frost is an American author, but Brodsky never came out and defined what an American poet was. This was a really prevalent topic in the paper and was one of the things that made me confused.

This essay does do its job though—I feel like I know Frost on a completely different level than I had before, and the essay shows good analyzation and techniques when approaching a poem. After reading this, I have a better understanding of how to approach and critique poems for a better understanding of the meaning behind the language.