Calling the X-Files! I have discovered an alien masquerading as a human. It looks like us but has no understanding of human emotions. It goes by the name of Caleb.

ewrgall

Caleb-

While it is not clear that the wife is unhappy with her husband, I think it is very clear she is unhappy with her situation, its isolation and dangers, real or imagined.

Ergwall-

Just because Caleb is not reading the same things into this poem that most of us are, there is no reason to call him an alien. Just say that his interpretation is wrong.

I had to read Frost in high school, and I didn't much like his bucolic poems. I prefered Sandberg, Kipling, and especially Ogden Nash. When I reread his poems about 10 years ago, I was struck with their elegance and precision.

Bologna, in fairness to Ewrgall, I did tell him (her? it?) to double up on his therapy sessions a couple posts up. Even so, his tone has been nastier than necessary. I just don't understand why he is so intent on reading marital discord into this poem.

I would argue that the wife isn't even unhappy with her situation. Loneliness, boredom, and a certain amount of fear are all parts of that type of life, and the fact that the wife is enduring them doesn't mean she is unhappy. We all endure things we don't like to get what we want. Indeed, if this is a young wife (without child), she may still be infatuated with her husband, though there is no suggestion of that either. All that following she does is certainly evidence of love and trust of her husband (at least to me).



[This message has been edited by Caleb Murdock (edited May 08, 2001).]

Caleb,

Putting a poem in your hands is like giving a loaded gun to an idiot.

ewrgall

Well, as usual MacArthur dislikes a couple of good
poems, which is his right, God knows---it's a
free country. And as usual he makes the mistake
of criticizing the verse in detail, including
the prosody, thus showing, as usual, that he
knows next to nothing about poetry and less than
nothing about the meters. I'm not complaining---
it's always a barrel of fun to see somebody be
so wrong about so many things.
And it's fun too to find the wildly disaparate
readings of "The Hill Wife."

Ewrgall, you just discredit yourself by being nasty.