he boy are dashed as he comes to the next stage of grieving, that of acceptance. Frost write, "Then the boy saw all - / Since he was old enough to know / He saw all spoiled" (Frost 22, 23, 25)Frost then takes the reader through a similar grieving process as the family and friends of the boy experience some, or possibly all, of the same stages of grief that the boy experienced. It is stark reminder of the lives of the ordinary and of the many families who lost many children before they reached their teenage years. Disease and the lack of medical science back then resulted in a higher death rate of young children. And then the watcher at his pulse took frightNo one believed. They listened at his heartNo more to build on there. And they.turned to their affairs. (Frost 30, 31, 33, 34)At this stage the grieving survivors cut each tie and relinquish the bonds that link them to the deceased. Frost depicts that the grieving will have to come to terms with the many life changes that may follow the boys death yet there is utter helplessness that life must go on as they turn away to their affairs. Edwin Robinson's "Richard Corey" takes another look at death, through the eyes of the common folk. As he spins the tale of Richard Corey, a rich man, he shows that to some the "good life" consists of wealth, and status.And he was rich, yes, richer than a kingAnd admirably schooled in every graceIn fine, we thought that he was everythingTo make us wish that we were in his place. (Robinson 9-12)Yet, for others however, life is so painful, so intolerable, that the alternative of oblivion seems a desirable option. They find life so taxing that they overcome any fear of death or punishment after death, perhaps embracing the view that there is nothing after death (a view whose very context of pointlessness invites suicide, regardless of the inherently negative view society has toward it.) While it is said that death is the great leveller, difference in ra...
