The Death of the Hired Man

“The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot (1914)

“Prufrock,” like Frost’s “Hired Man,” reflects the daring of Modernism. Like Frost, Eliot stays apart from the poem. The poem reveals the character of the would-be poet Prufrock—his frustrations and loneliness—through the vehicle of his monologue.

“Home Burial” by Robert Frost (1914)

“Home Burial,” which appeared in the same collection as “Hired Man,” is a similar experiment in dramatic narrative. A husband and wife have an unsettling encounter over how each parent is handling grief after the death of their baby.

“A Trampwoman’s Tragedy” by Thomas Hardy (1903)

A dramatic narrative written at the same time as “Hired Man” and by a poet Frost admired, the poem recounts the story of three characters whose otherwise routine stroll through the countryside ends up in a murder. The poem is rendered entirely in monologues. Hardy’s poem shares Frost’s pessimistic outlook.