On Grief And Reason

In Joseph Brodsky’s “On Grief and Reason essays”, he introduces the idea that although Robert Frost’s writing may seem light hearted and uplifting, that it really has a deeper and dark meaning behind the text. As an example in the text, he uses Frost’s poem “Come In” to show some of the dark language used in Frost’s writing. He mentions the stanza, “Too dark in the woods for a bird, By sleight of wing, To betterits perch for the night, Though it still could sing.” The line that states that the woods are too dark for a bird gives, enhances the idea of the dark woods. It makes it seem like no living creature would want to go into the dark woods. Brodsky uses “Come In” to show frost preparing for death, compared to “Home Burial” which shows how death in clearly inevitable. I agree with Brodsky on this because of the contradicting sides of each poem. It also shows his use of parallelism in his work. What really made my eyes open was the suggestion of the poem “Come In” really being about Frost wanting to commit suicide. Brodsky writes, “Or if not suicide- well, death.” He was suggesting that the purpose of Frost’s poem “Come In” was surrounded by suicide. This essay helps us understand Brodsky because it shows the different sides of Frost and the parallelism. Well, the new criticism lens is used to see only what the actual text is saying.