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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 · The boy’s initial reaction to the injury is a rueful laugh, indicating a mix of shock and disbelief. 16 The boy holds up his injured hand, seeking help and trying to contain the damage.
- 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.
Oct 3, 2024 · In "Out, Out—," Robert Frost creates horror by juxtaposing ordinary, everyday details with horrific events. The poem describes a boy performing a routine task using a saw, which...
Oct 14, 2023 · One of the workers, a young boy, has his hand severely injured by that ferocious saw blade. He loses blood rapidly, and the shock kills him, despite the presence of a doctor. It's a sorry tale of an early demise, one which Robert Frost knew all too well in his own family life.
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Aug 4, 2024 · Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out-” is a powerful piece of writing that tells a sad story about a young boy’s tragic accident. Published in 1916, this poem has touched many readers with its raw emotion and vivid imagery.
