Also Read
In A Disused Graveyard
The living come with grassy tread
To read the gravestones on the hill;
The graveyard draws the living still,
But never anymore the dead.
The verses in it say and say:
"The ones who living come today
To read the stones and go away
Tomorrow dead will come to stay."
So sure of death the marbles rhyme,
Yet can't help marking all the time
How no one dead will seem to come.
What is it men are shrinking from?
It would be easy to be clever
And tell the stones: Men hate to die
And have stopped dying now forever.
I think they would believe the lie.
 |
| In A Disused Graveyard |
Summary and Analysis
Introduction:
In A Disused Graveyard by Robert Frost is a sad poem from New Hampshire. It is about a graveyard which is no longer used. But it draws the living visitors who come to see the graves of their relatives or friends. Arrival of close persons bring sadness. Writings on the tombstone fetch the remembrance of close one. It is the great intensity of mortal nature which bring gloominess in human consciousness.
Summary:
The visitors to the disused graveyard read the verses on the tombstones indirectly warning them that they too will soon die. The marble tombstones, however, cannot understand why no more dead bodies are brought there for burial. The poet's answer is that men "hate to die and have stopped dying now forever". Of course, the statement is untrue, but the tombstones will believe it as no new graves are being dug in that graveyard. Indirectly, the poem only serves to point out that no amount of 'shrinking' from death will save man from it.
Critical Analysis:
The poem is easy to understand and has no obscurity. The reflective and sad mood is somewhat relieved by the simplicity and melody. The style of writing is very lucid and imageries are explicitly portrays in a great manner.