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Throughout the poem, Frost uses imagery to describe the boy’s injuries in graphic detail, such as “the hand half-hidden in the sleeve” and “the life from spilling”. These descriptions create a sense of horror and shock in the reader, and emphasize the suddenness and brutality of the boy’s death.
May 14, 2024 · This auditory imagery, coupled with the rhythmic repetition of phrases like “snarled and rattled,” amplifies the poem’s grim and somber tone, emphasizing the destructive power of the machine and the abrupt end of the boy’s life.
- Poetic Techniques
- Analysis of Out, Out—
- Structure and Form
- Historical Context
‘Out, Out—’ by Robert Frost is a single stanza poem made up of thirty-four lines. There is no single rhyme scheme or metrical pattern, although a few of the lines, distributed throughout the text, are in iambic pentameter. Frost also makes use of a number of other poetic techniques. These include juxtaposition, alliteration, and enjambement. The fi...
Lines 1-6
In the first stanza of ‘Out, Out—‘ the speaker begins by describing, through vibrant, sound-rich adjectives, the presence of a “buzz saw”. It is personifiedthrough its “snarl[ing]” like animals, and “rattl[ing]” as if out of control or is close to falling apart. Then it appears to move on its own. It makes “dust” and drops “stove-length sticks of wood”. From these first lines, a reader can determine that the young boy who is operating the machine is cutting wood for the family’s stove. In the...
Lines 7-12
In an immediate and shocking juxtaposition with the peaceful mountain scene, the speaker returns to the saw in the next lines of ‘Out, Out—’. Repetitionis used to reiterate the snarling and rattling of the machine. It interrupts the landscape, reasserting its presence and its place as the main focus of the text. Frost’s speaker describes the way it moves back and forth between light and heavy loads of wood. It seems, at this point, as though it can handle the job that’s been set out for it. T...
Lines 13-18
It is in the next section of ‘Out, Out—’ that the climax of the poem takes shape. The sister comes to stand beside her brother and tell him that it’s time to stop work and come in and have supper. As if reacting to the sister’s words, the saw jumps and cuts the boy’s handoff. Frost again utilizes personificationto make to seem as though the saw is an animal acting through its own will. There is an interesting moment in lines seventeen and eighteen in which the speaker goes back and forth betw...
This narrative poem is set in one long stanza, written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. In the absence of any formal rhymescheme, some rhyme can still be identified in the repetition of the words ‘saw’, ‘hand’, and ‘boy’ which are emphasized throughout. The title is taken from Macbeth’s soliloquy ‘Out out brief candle’in which he ponders the brevity ...
‘Out, Out‘ is found in Frost’s anthology Mountain Interval, which was published in 1916. It is said that Frost wrote this poem in response to an account of a young boy’s death which was reported in a local newspaper in March 1901. Frost was often described as being a farmer-poet who could have been seen as an outsider in his rural community of Mass...
- Female
- October 9, 1995
- Poetry Analyst And Editor
- “Out, Out—” Summary.
- “Out, Out—” Themes. Life and Death. See where this theme is active in the poem. Humankind and Technology.
- Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Out, Out—” Lines 1-6. The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard. And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
- “Out, Out—” Symbols. The Buzz Saw. See where this symbol appears in the poem.
Feb 22, 2021 · But then Frost writes that the boy must have “given” the hand, returning to reality, to the sudden recognition that the chain of events he has described is inaccurate. His conclusion is an acceptance that neither hand nor saw “refused the meeting.”
Oct 14, 2023 · Frost's poem "Out, Out—" is about life and death on a rural farm. In an idyllic setting, a young boy is working a buzz saw, but a fateful accident brings about his sad demise. Is his death insignificant? Who is responsible? Blank verse, deep imagery.
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Apr 1, 2024 · Through his use of imagery, Frost effectively conveys the protagonist’s initial isolation as well as his eventual strength and resilience. With his images of an empty hall and a wide range of emotions, Frost demonstrates how the protagonist finds solace in the face of adversity.
