From predicament to reconciliation —A comparative analysis of two poems by Frost on marital relationship
始于困顿，终于兼和—弗罗斯特两首夫妻困顿主题诗歌的对比分析

摘要

几个世纪以来，作家都在书写源于缺乏沟通导致的人类悲剧，弗罗斯特也不例外。然而，弗罗斯特也满怀希望的书写人与人成功沟通的可能性。弗罗斯特的诗歌探及人与他人，人与自我，人与自然，人与生命的关系，有相当篇幅的诗歌探讨爱情和婚姻。弗罗斯特曾说，他的所有诗歌都是爱情诗，他书写纯真的爱情，沸腾的爱情，迷失的爱情，也展现成熟的婚姻，失败的婚姻。本篇文章聚焦《波士顿以北》这部诗集中两首书写夫妻困境的诗篇—《家庭墓地》和《雇工之死》。《家庭墓地》一诗中的困顿是因为夫妻二人对孩子夭折所表现出的不同悲伤承受方式引起的，《雇工之死》中的困顿则是因为夫妻在面对一位丧失工作能力并背信弃义的老雇工是否应该在农闲时节回到雇主之家的不同见解引起的。通过两首诗歌中夫妻在面对困顿时的不同处理方式探讨诗歌所折射的夫妻相处之道，探索弗罗斯特的处世态度以及面对生活困境的心态。

Abstract

For centuries, writers have been writing about human tragedies caused by lack of communication, and Frost is no exception. However, Frost also wrote hopefully about the possibility of successful communication between people. Frost’s poetry discusses the relationships between man and others, man and self, man and nature, man and life, with a considerable amount of poetry dealing with love and marriage. Frost once said that all of his poems are love poems. He writes about pure love, boiling love, lost love, as well as mature marriages and failed marriages. This paper focuses on two poems in North of Boston that depict the predicament of couples— “Home Burial” and “The Death of the Hired Man”. The predicament in “Home Burial” is occasioned by the different ways the couple bear the grief of their lost child, while the predicament in “The Death of the Hired Man” is caused by the couple’s different views on whether an old worker who has lost his ability to work and betrayed his promise should return to the hirer’s home during the off-season. Through the different ways the couples cope with difficulties in these two poems, this paper aims to explore how couples can get along with each other through a hard time, and Frost’s attitude towards life in face of difficulties.