Title of Paper

The poem is a conversation between a farmer named Warren and his wife

Mary. Warren has just arrived home and his wife stops him at the porch because

Silas, an occasional farm helper who they used to employ, has come back to their

farm and is currently sleeping beside their stove. Mary tells her husband to be kind to

Silas because she knows that Warren is not pleased with Silass return. Silas comes

once a year during the off season and leaves just before he is most needed when

they are about to harvest. Silas is also now too old and ill to work. Mary shushes

Warren when he was openly denouncing Silas because the latter might hear it.

Warren then proceeds by saying that he wants Silas to hear it because he does not

want Silas to stay.

Mary found Silas near their barn door fast asleep. She dragged him to their

home and tried to make him drink some tea and smoke. She tried asking him about

his travels but he would just keep nodding off. He said that he came to ditch the

meadow and clear the upper pasture as well. Silas then started talking about Harold

Wilson who also used to be a farm help a couple of years back and is currently

teaching in his college. He hopes to have the boy back with them in the farm so they

could work together and he reminisces about how much they used to argue. Silas

also hopes he could teach Harold how to build a load of hay, the one thing that Silas

is good at according to Warren. They speculate that it Silas perhaps would want to

be of some good to someone in the world and that he is so concerned with other

folk.

Mary then concludes that Silas has come back home to die and jokingly tells

her husband not to worry about him leaving again. They then discuss their own
interpretations of the word home and what it means. According to Mary, Home is the

place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in. This is in contrast

to what Warrens definition of home is, Something you somehow havent to

deserve. Warren then picks up a little stick, breaks it in two by hand, and tossed it

by. Then the couple discussed about how Silas has better claim on them that his rich

brother, a director in the bank who lives just thirteen little miles away. They then

conclude that theres nothing between the brothers. Silas is but just the kind that

kinsfolk cant abide. He never did a thing so very bad. He dont know why he isnt

quite as good as anyone. Worthless though he is, He wont be made ashamed to

please his brother. Then Warren realizes that Si probably hasnt hurt anyone. Then

Mary says he hurt her heart by the way he lay and rolled his old head on that sharp-

edged chair-back. She then tells her husband about how Silas is so broken and his

working days are already behind him. They have to put him in bed to rest him

properly. Mary then tells Warren to go put Silas in bed and that Silas had hatched a

plan to help them in the farm. She then reminds Warren not to laugh at Silas. Then

after a brief moment, Warren returned. Warren, she questioned. Dead, was all he

answered.

The poem being a conversation between Mary and Warren, sets the stage for

a dichotomy between the couple. Silass coming home to their farm has kept the two

arguing about many things. Their biggest contrast is how they define home. Mary

defines home as the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you

in, while Warrens definition is something you somehow havent to deserve. This also

shows the contrast in how they view Silas. Mary is obviously very merciful towards

the old and broken man who has helped them in their farm, while Warren seeks

justice because Silas would always come during the offseason and leave when they
would need him the most on harvesting time. In the end, Silas actually has come

home to both definitions because Mary took him in despite his refusal and Warren

believes Silas does not deserve it at all.

Mary is very merciful towards him and she shows this when she tells her

husband to be kind to the old man in the beginning, telling him not to be too loud

when he was vocalizing how displeased he is with Silass arrival, and also in the end

when she convinced her husband to go see Silas and put him in bed. She reminded

her husband not to laugh at Silas and told him about his plan to still help them in

their farm. Warren on the other hand clearly seeks justice because of how Silas

leaves when most help is needed. He was clearly not happy with Silass arrival in the

beginning of the poem and has repeatedly shown how displeased he is. We was

very intense and talked quite loudly about his displeasure as well. He also broke a

stick in two with his bare hands at one point in the poem. After all the arguing with his

wife, his heart has changed, sympathy began weighing down on his heart, and he

realized that Silas could do no harm to anyone. His wife was able to incite this

change in his heart and she managed to convince him to carry the old and broken

man to the bed, only to find out Silas is already dead. It should also be noted that

Mary is the only one among the two who has actually seen Silas since he came

home to them, and that is probably why she is more merciful to him. Having seen

Silass broken state, she feels much more sympathetic towards him which explains

why she behaved that way. Warren on the other hand has not seen Silass condition,

which then explains his hostility to Silass arrival.

The main theme or message of the poem is to forgive before its too late. The

whole poem is about the couple discussing and arguing about how to deal with the

return of Silas that when they have decided to take care of him, they were too late.
They spent too much time on deciding what to do that when they decided, Silas was

already dead. We can also see this in Silass desire to work with Harold, a hired help

who was also employed by the old couple, again and to teach him a few stuff.