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English 9, Section 22
6 February 2012
Poetry Menu Main Dish: “Out, Out—” by Robert Frost
1. “Out, Out—” (Published in Mountain Interval in 1916)
by Robert Frost
The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside them in her apron
To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap—
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all—
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man's work, though a child at heart—
He saw all spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off—
The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!"
So. But the hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.
No one believed. They listened at his heart.
Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
4. Theme
The topic of this poem is clearly death and what
people do about it. The theme is: “Death does not
affect the routines of the living.”
2. Poetic Devices
Onomatopoeia
Identify: Line 1: “…buzz-saw snarled and rattled…”
Explain: This use of onomatopoeia adds to this poem by improving the
overall imagery that Frost is trying to create. He provides great visual and
olfactory imagery, and simply uses the sounds of ‘snarl’ and ‘rattle’ to help
the reader further imagine the atmosphere of the scene: hard work in a yard
which is a beautiful setting. The ‘snarling’ reference also helps us to picture
the buzz-saw as a rabid or angry beast set on harm.
Imagery
Identify: Line 5: “Five mountain ranges one behind the other”
Explain: Imagery is the use of descriptions to help the reader imagine what is
happening through the 5 senses. This is visual imagery and, again, adds to
the atmosphere of the poem. Mountain ranges are usually huge, but in the
East (Vermont) ranges are smaller than typical (they include mountain ranges
like the Green Mountains and Taconic Mountains), according to the United
States Geological Survey. This description and my research have helped the
reader picture distant and foggy-green mountains as though there is no end to
them.
Personification
Identify: Line 16: [The saw] “Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or
seemed to leap—”
Explain: Personification adds meaning to both descriptions and ‘movements’
of objects within a poem by making them seem like sentient, thinking
humans. The saw here ‘leaps’ at the boy’s hand to cut it off as though it
knew what ‘supper’ meant. This is Frost’s way of showing that the objects in
the world all around us, even saws, have the job of destroying life. It makes
the saw the enemy, not the boy’s own carelessness. Thus shifting the focus
from something that merely happened to an event that has a perpetrator (the
saw) and a victim (the boy).
3. Speaker and Tone
Speaker
The speaker of this poem is an impersonal observer who seems to
have no emotional connection to the event. It could be any person
who has a fatalistic view of the world, including the death of a child.
But, it is a person because he or she knows what it’s like to face
moments of freedom from work (see line 12).
Tone
The speaker has a matter-of-fact tone here, he or she is impersonal
and simply sees the situation as it truly is.
5. Poem Image
The image on right represents both the setting and message of the poem.
The setting of a beautiful and natural part of Vermont with the Appalachian
Mountains as a backdrop sets a clear atmosphere for the poem: nature rules,
as in this photograph. The theme is represented well by this photograph,
also, which reveals that life goes on, even when death storms onto the scene.
The natural world always persists as does the routines of the living.
SOURCE: This photograph was taken by Valerius Tygart on August 17, 2007 of The
Monongahela National Forest. This photograph has been freed for use under the GNU Free
Document License. This has not be used by permission of the copyright holder, but within full
allowance of the Document License for educational purposes.