The Hill Wife

1. The Hill Wife • Robert Frost

2. CONTEXT • The poem was published in 1916. • Frost grew up in a rural area and was interested in nature. • His work in known for having ‘menacing undertones’

3. The regular rhyme scheme represents the wife’s compression and the regularity and dullness of her life. The enjambment is on going making the words flow freely representing her desire to be free and escape. Wife narrating The fact the stanzas titled ‘her word’ makes her seem feeble and unworthy her place in the poem The reference s to birds shows they are envious of the carefree life birds have to come and go as they please LONELINESS Her Word One ought not to have to care So much as you and I Care when the birds come round the house To seem to say good-bye Or care so much when they come back With whatever it is they sing; The truth being we are as much Too glad for one thing As we are too sad for the others here – With birds that fill their breasts But with each other and themselves And their built or driven nests Make their relationship seem troubled and strained Singing has connotations of happiness - emphasising freedom of the birds life ‘others’ refers to the birds that are still in the house. The word ‘driven’ suggests the birds will and desire to build their nests, the wife's emotions mirror this however she doesn’t have the drive to compel herself out of fear of being alone – irony is used here as she suggests that she is already lonely yet cannot do anything about it out of fear off being alone The nest is a metaphor for their own home as it’s only filled with ‘each other and themselves’ suggests loneliness.

4. The return home as late as possible – want to avoid house! Because they feel trapped inside it, repetition of ‘always’ emphasises their ongoing struggle and their monotonous feeling of their life. Metaphor for their relationship and lifestyle. HOUSE FEAR Always – I tell you this they learned— Always at night when they return To the lonely house from far away To lamps unlighted and fire gone gray They learned to rattle the lock and key To give whatever might chance to be Warning and time to be off in flight.. And preferring the out – to the indoor night, They learned to leave the house – door wide Until they had lit the lamp inside. They rattle the lock loudly when entering the house so that whatever's inside can fly away - the birds. Personification of the house, mirroring their emotions. They leave the door open at night, so that they don’t get engulfed by the darkness/imprisoned by the house. This ambiguous metaphor represents the darkness within them and their lives which they’re trying to shut out, by contrastingly opening the door.

5. Structure – the rhyming scheme represents mirroring (AABCBC) as if she is analysing herself as well as the stranger. The stanza starts with her being lonely. The 2nd line shows that the stranger she is talking about was never truly happy – never had meaning behind his smile. The Smile Her Word I didn’t like the way he went away. That smile! It never came of being gay. Still he smiled- did you see him? – I was sure! Perhaps because we gave him only bread And the wretch knew from that that we were poor. Perhaps because he let us give instead Of season from us as he might have seized. Perhaps he mocked us for being wed, Or being very young (and he was pleased To have a vision of us old and dead). I wonder how far down the road he’s got. He’s watching from the woods as like as not. Punctuation is ambiguous – could show doubt or excitement. The rhyming of these two words shows the connection the wife sees between them – it shows the realisation of the future of her marriage. Repetition of perhaps show uncertainty or un-fulfillment. Shows jealousy of people that have freedom and can move forward with their lives.

6. Wife finds it impossible to express emotions through words. These lines hint at haunting/intruders trying to get in to the house. THE OFT-REPEATED DREAM She had no saying dark enough For the dark pine that kept Forever trying the window-latch Of the room where they slept. The tireless but ineffectual hands That with every futile pass Made the great tree seem as a little bird Before the mystery of glass! It never had been inside the room, And only one of the two Was afraid in an oft-repeated dream Of what the tree might do. The ‘tireless’ hands is ambiguous. Could show abuse or affection from husband. They’re also compared to nature (the tree’s and the birds). The ‘hand’ of the tree foreshadows the possible hanging of the wife later in the poem. The ‘mystery’ of glass – see the nature outside – the trees, birds and even the possible stranger. The window represents a barrier between her and the freedom of the outside – she’s close enough to touch it but she can’t. The wife Shows paranoia Personification of the tree – again foreshadowing her possible death.

7. Repetition of ‘too’ shows the wife becoming overwhelmed. Shows loneliness THE IMPULSE It was too lonely for her there, And too wild, And since there were but two of them, And no child, And work was little in the house, She was free, And followed where he furrowed field, Or felled tree. She rested on a log and tossed The fresh chips, With a song only to herself On her lips. Rhyme emphasises that the tree offers her escape through death. These lines bare connotations to qualities of birds – shows her transformation in to a bird (in to freedom) – death.

8. The structure has transformed to long lines, in to short and long lines – representing transformation in to freedom – no long confined. Ambigouos – mental breakdown – breakdown of marriage – breakthrough of freedom. Again has connotations of birds. and once she went to break a bough Of black alder She strayed so far she scarcely heard. When he called her- And didn’t answer – didn’t speak – Or return. She stood, and then she ran and hid In the fern. He never found her, though he looked Everywhere, And he asked at her mother’s house Was she there. Sudden and swift the light as that The ties gave, And he learned of finalities Besides the grave. Sympathy for the husband? Another reference to qualities of a bird. She hanged herself? – her transformation to a bird is complete. She is free. The word besides here can be ‘other than’. There are finalities other than death (e.g. The end of their relationship?).