Poem, Birches And Out, Out By Robert Frost

"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.

As a child, one plays on the playground. The adventures happen amongst the swings. The escape and journey through the air causes the mind to wander and dream. The same way the speaker in Birches by Robert Frost uses his imagination to think of the dangling birches to be caused by a child at play. The feeling of going back and forth gives one the feeling of leaving earth for a little while and soaring above the trees. Feet towards the heavens and the feeling of one’s stomach dropping on the way down, gives a sense of release. As one goes through hard times, they look for that release from the world. The desire to get away is released through swinging to then be pulled back to earth. This same feeling was felt in Birches as a young boy rides

Robert Frosts “birches” creates a sense of isolation throughout the poem. In line 25 Frost wrote “some boy to far from town to learn baseball”. In lines 26-27 he wrote “Who’s only play was what he found himself”. Also in line 44 Frost writes “and life is too much like a pathless wood”. These are some of the quotes that can give you a feeling of isolation when you are reading the poem.

Frost also examines the search for truth that is central to every life. His poem “Neither Out Far Nor In Deep” uses the image of people standing on a beach looking out to sea as a metaphor for this search for truth. It reads:

Frost incorporates his personal experiences with loss and his views on society into the narrative

Robert Frost is an iconic poet in American literature today, and is seen as one of the most well known, popular, or respected twentieth century American poets. In his lifetime, Frost received four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry, and the Congressional Gold Medal. However, Robert Frost’s life was not always full of fame and wealth; he had a very difficult life from the very beginning. At age 11, his father died of tuberculosis; fifteen years later, his mother died of cancer. Frost committed his younger sister to a mental hospital, and many years later, committed his own daughter to a mental hospital as well. Both Robert and his wife Elinor suffered from depression throughout their lives, but considering the premature deaths of three of their children and the suicide of another, both maintained sanity very well. (1)

Lian Hearn says, “Death comes suddenly and life is fragile and brief…”. In Robert Frost’s poem ‘Out, Out-’, the author frequently demonstrates the fragility of life and death’s ability to change it in an instant, through the use of literary allusions, imagery, personification, and tension. These devices are used to help illustrate to the readers the fragility of life and how death can turn an ordinary day into a catastrophic one. Throughout the poem, Frost focuses on the theme of death and its capricious nature that can affect anyone at anytime.

Robert Frost shares a bitter story throughout the poem “Out, Out”. This poem is about a young boy losing his life, the repetition in the title describes the boy exiting the real world. Robert uses intensive imagery in “Out, Out” to develop a deeper understanding to what the boy is going through and the challenges he faces. This poem speaks to all people, regardless of race, time and place by providing multiple situations to connect on a personal level with leading to a deeper meaning of the story behind the poem.

Out—Out by Robert Frost was composed both intricately and meticulously; basically, every—single—word, and shift in tone had a distinct purpose. The poem introduced the antagonist, or rather the personified saw, and enveloped the reader with a tranquil and beautiful scene, “five mountain ranges one behind the other under the sunset far into Vermont”. The poem focused on a grown boy, yearning to hastily complete his farm work and leave 30 minutes early—oh, the things that can transpire in half-an-hour! During his haste, the saw "leaped out…, or seemed to leap" and severed his hand, the boy reacted with a "rueful laugh", which signified how ridiculously and easily he lost his hand. There wasn’t much he could do but await the doctor’s arrival;

Death is not an easy subject, especially when it is the death of a child. Children are never meant to die before their parents, when it happens the environment around this child begins to breakdown. A parent is never meant to see child child dead, the parents die, then their children. Robert Frost discusses this is his two poems “Home Burial” and “Out, Out”. These poems show the difficulty of grief between the middle/upper class and lower class and how they both deal with death. The poems express that while both families experience a similar loss, no one's loss is ever the same.

“Birches”, written by Robert Frost in 1913 and published as part of his Mountain Interval collection, is a poem of childhood naivety. The euphonic piece explores the use of abundant writing techniques, all of which contribute to its layers of complexity. The speaker of this poem is focused on birch trees, hoping that they have been bent by a young boy swinging them; however, the speaker is fully aware of the “Truth”, knowing that they have indeed been bent down by an ice-storm. Wishing to go back in time to the days in which he himself would “swing” birch trees, the speaker contemplates more profound meanings of this swinging. A tendency found in Frost’s writing is an implementation of nature, often utilized as either the focus of the work or just an auxiliary motif, resulting in quasi-transcendental themes. Being one of his most beloved works, Robert Frost’s “Birches” is a poem which, upon analysis of its complex use of poetic and literary devices, reveals a culmination of distinct themes.

Robert Lee Frost is a very distinguished author born in March 26, 1874, his work was first published in England before it was introduced into America. He is known for the realism found in his works and his depiction of America he would also talk about certain aspects of England in the twentieth century and used his experience to look at interesting themes of social and cultural nature. By 1915, he had published two full-length collections, A Boy’s Will (1913) and North of Boston (1914), by this time he was very well established as a known author. By the early nineteen hundred he was celebrated poet in America. His fame and honors increased Robert Frost was an awarded author being recognized during his life several times,

“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words,” Robert Frost once said. As is made fairly obvious by this quote, Frost was an adroit thinker. It seems like he spent much of his life thinking about the little things. He often pondered the meaning and symbolism of things he found in nature. Many readers find Robert Frost’s poems to be straightforward, yet his work contains deeper layers of complexity beneath the surface. These deeper layers of complexity can be clearly seen in his poems “ The Road Not Taken”, “Fire and Ice”, and “Birches”.

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)

When frost returned to America in 1915, ‘North of Boston’ was a best seller. “Tall muscular body and a rugged face, with its pale watchful eyes became a familiar sight; as the hair whitened and the face grew saggy, and the body thickened, those eyes remained the same.”(Robert.) In 1917, Frost became one of the first poets in residence on an American Campus. Frost returned to Amherst for 2 years in 1923 and joined the University of Michigan in 1975, and then settled in Amherst in 1926. (Robert.) “Because of his weak lungs, his doctor ordered him to go south in 1936, and there after he spent his winters in Florida.”(Robert.) In 1961, at the inauguration of JFK, Frost recited ‘The Gift Outright’, the first time a poet had honored a presidential inauguration. On Jan 29, 1963, Frost died in Boston, following an operation. A large amount of frost’s poems were based off of the seasons. After Robert Frost’s birth, his father soon became interested in politics. Robert Frost was a great person due to the fact that no matter how many times he was down, he always got back up and did something great. And by the same token, Babe Ruth accomplished a lot of the same things.