Out, Out
"Out, Out," by Robert Frost is a gruesomely graphic and emotional poem about the tragic end of a young boy's life. It is a powerful expression about the fragility of life and the fact that death can come at any time. Death is always devastating, but it is even more so when the victim is just a young boy. The fact that the boy's death came right before he could " Call it a day" (750) leads one to think the tragedy might have been avoided and there by forces the reader to think, "What if." This poem brings the question of mortality to the reader's attention and shows that death has no age limit.
It was powerful poems such as "Out, Out" that gave Robert Frost the reputation as one of America's leading 20th century poets. The
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This was the start of Frost's reputation as one of the great American writers of the 20th century.
"Out, Out" is a great example of a typical Robert Frost poem. This narrative poem tells a story of human tragedy through the death of a young boy. The poem shows how fragile life can be and how it can be taken from people in an instant. The boy's tragic death is illuminated for the reader by a commentator watching the incident from the outside looking in. There is a lot of detail given to the reader early on describing the saw and the way it "snarled and rattled." These details and the emphases on the boy's age and his wanting to leave work early made the situation destined for tragedy. It was as if Frost was preparing us for the tragedy to come, "And nothing happened: day was all but done"(9). This suggests that something is definitely going to happen. Another clue that something awful is about to happen is the way the saw is personified it: " leaped out of the boy's hand" (16). As it is described, the saw jumped out of the boy's hand when he is called for supper, "As if to prove that saw knew what supper meant" (15). Through the use of onomatopoeia, the saw is also made to sound vicious like an attack dog when it is heard to snarl and rattle. The personification and description of the noises of the saw makes defiantly it seem like a major character in the poem.
The theme of this poem is the boy's
An unknown author once wrote “Never take life too seriously; after all, no one gets out of it alive”. When reading this quote, there can almost be an immediate connection between two very good works of writing: Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” speech from Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, and the poem “Out, Out --” by Robert Frost. Both allude to the idea that a single life, in its totality, denotes nothing, and eventually, everyone’s candle of life is blown out. However, each poet approaches this idea from opposite perspectives. Frost writes of a young, innocent boy whose life ends suddenly and unexpectedly. His poem is dry and lacks emotion from anyone
‘Out, out-’ is a very dark poem that is death-related; it is written by an American poet called Robert Frost. This poem talks about
Frost has a compelling way of writing the poem, in the beginnings of the poem there is a lot of metaphors and descriptions of the setting and the saw and the boy. Once the boy is injured
In Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out-” the poet uses literary devices to describe the setting and thorough meaning of the poem. Frost has created a character during World War 1, and the character gets injured and dies from that injury. Frost reveals imagery, diction, and figurative language.
In Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out” an overwhelming theme of agony can be sensed as
century. Most Americans recognize his name, the titles of and lines from his best-known poems, and even his face. Given his immense popularity, it is a remarkable testimony to the extent of his achievement that he is also considered to be one of the greatest, if not the very greatest, of modern American poets. "…the life and work of America's premier poet- the only truly national poet America has yet produced"(Parini23). His influence is still being felt in American life today. His success in America as well as in England has guaranteed the preservation of his legacy for generations to come. "…Frost gradually evolved from poet to cultural icon,
A Comparison of The death of a hired man and Out, Out- by Robert Frost
Robert Frost tells a disturbing story in 'Out, Out, --', in which a little boy loses his life. The title of the poem leaves the reader to substitute the last word of the title, which some would assume would be out because of the repetition. The title is referring to the boy exiting the living world. Frost drags the reader's mind into the poem with the imagistic description of the tools and atmosphere the little boy is surrounded by.
Out, Out is a poem written by the late Robert Frost. It depicts the harsh death of a young farm boy due to an accident caused by a saw. The title of the poem derives from a speech in the famous Shakespeare play, Macbeth, and it signifies the ephemeral nature of life. The writer depicts this behind a scenic, Vermont countryside, offsetting the horror that this accident caused. The author also uses many other ways to evoke a sense of horror in this poem.
Robert Frosts poem “Out, Out,” paints a strange and bizarre death image to readers; A young boys death due to a carnivorous chainsaw who sought blood, slicing the boys hand off. Robert makes readers understand why he would paint such a tragic accident with various narrative elements, such as personification, many signs of imagery, emotions, and perceptions throughout the story. Also, Frost references William Shakespeare’s work, “Macbeth.” This gives readers who have read Macbeth before, an idea of what’s to come in the end of the poem, the feeling of sadness and death. This analysis will show the main theme of the boys death, who died doing the work of a man.
Within such a short sentence, the boy’s life was simply gone. This use of tripling is very effective, as it may symbolise a heartbeat, slowly beating away, to its fate. The dashes further enhance this, as they make the reader pause in the gaps between the words, making the “heartbeats” seem further and further apart, and eventually dying away. Another quote which gives the reader a sense of loss is the final stanza of the poem: “And they, since they were not the ones dead, turned to their affairs”, in line 33-34. This quote, to put into simpler words, means that the people who were working with this young boy (who happen to be his family), had better things to do than to care for the death of this young boy, and simply turned away, and got back to work. This action seems alarmingly heartless, but nevertheless, Frost very successfully makes the jreaders feel a huge sense of loss. This line once again shows how meaningless and vulnerable life is.
The literary era in which Robert Frost wrote was the modernism era. This era was a time when poets, and artists in general, were starting to rebel against the “normal” way to write
The poem Out Out--, is about life and how it could end at any moment by death. Thus, the title is known to have come from a scene in Macbeth, “The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!” (23; Macbeth). With this poem, Frost emphasizes death as a result of the everyday life on a farm as a young boy, who by accident or with the lack of attention has severed his hand, lost too much blood, and died. Like a candle being blown out, death can become us at any moment of our everyday lives.
Robert Frost is known for his layering poetry that includes unique characters for the audience to enjoy. He, “always wants to reach for a more complicated vision, one arrived at after much pain, much “sucking up” of passive, reflected beauty” (Panini 235). This quote about Frost suggests that his writing flourishes in the face of uncomfortable subject matter, a quality most ordinary people do possess. However, Frost is not trying to steer the audience toward his way of thinking, he is simply telling us that the characters we sense in the text will have bold personalities, also known as persona. An illustration of this writing strategy is present in Frost’s poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” from the 1928 collection, West-Running Brook. Here, Frost creates a good example of a Rubaiyat stanza that is broken into four sections totaling sixteen lines. From the moment we meet the narrator, we are aware that his persona is suspicious, from his inspections of the winter surrounding, to the focus on his odd behavior and the final reminder of a plan. What “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” deeply concerns is found in the fresh behaviors and subtle hints that the narrator presents to the reader. Due to Frost’s skillful delivery of narrator’s persona in this poem, the topic of suicidal thoughts is presented to the audience in an attempt to create awareness about this life threatening condition.
Robert Frost is perhaps one of America's best poets of his generation. His vivid images of nature capture the minds of readers. His poems appear to be simple, but if you look into them there is a lot of insight. Robert Frost spoke at John F. Kennedy's inauguration. He is the only poet to have had the opportunity to speak at a presidential inauguration. Through his poetry people learn that Robert Frost is a complicated and intellectual man who has a place in many American hearts. (Richards P.10)