FREE ESSAY ON OUT, OUT-- BY ROBERT FROST

OUT, OUT-- BY ROBERT FROST

"Out, Out--
Out, Out-- by Robert Frost is a poem about a young boy who dies as a result of cutting
his hand using a saw. In order to give the reader a clear picture of this bizarre
scenario, Frost utilizes imagery, personification, blank verse, and variation in sentence
length to display various feelings and perceptions throughout the poem. Frost also makes
a reference to Macbeth's speech in the play by Shakespear called Macbeth which is
somewhat parallel to the occurrences in Out, Out-. 
Frost begins the poem by describing a young boy cutting some wood using a buzz-saw. The
setting is Vermont and the time is late afternoon. The sun is setting and the boy's
sister calls he and the other workers to come for Supper. As the boy hears its
dinnertime, he gets excited and cuts his hand on accident. Immediately realizing that the
doctor might amputate his hand, he asks his sister to make sure that it does not happen.
By the time the doctor arrives, it is too late and the boy's hand is already lost. When
the doctor gives him anaesthetic, he falls asleep and never wakes up again. The last
sentence of the poem, since they (the boys family and the doctor) were not the one dead,
turned to their affairs shows how although the boys death is tragic, people move on with
their life in a way conveying the idea that people only care for themselves. 
Frost uses different stylistic devices throughout this poem. He is very descriptive using
things such as imagery and personification to express his intentions in the poem. Frost
uses imagery when he describes the setting of the place. He tells his readers the boy is
standing outside by describing the visible mountain ranges and sets the time of day by
saying that the sun is setting. Frost gives his readers an image of the boy feeling pain
by using contradicting words such as rueful and laugh and by using powerful words such as
outcry. He also describes the blood coming from the boy's hand as life that is spilling.
To show how the boy is dying, Frost gives his readers an image of the boy breathing
shallowly by saying that he is puffing his lips out with his breath. 
When talking about the saw, Frost uses personification and repetition. Personification is
seen when he says that at times it can run light and at others it has to bear a load,
talking as if the saw was a person which had to carry something. Repetition is used to
help build an image of the saw's movements where the words snarled and rattled are
repeated several times throughout the poem to display an image of the saw moving back and
forth. Frost's variation in the lengths of his sentences almost reflect the boy's life
for when the boy is still alive and healthy, the lengths of Frost's sentences are much
longer then they are when the boy is dying. 
The poem's title, Out, Out- is taken from the Shakespeare play Macbeth where the main
character, Macbeth, speaks after he is told that his wife is dead. Using a simile to
compare Lady Macbeth's death to a candle which is blown out he says Out, out, brief
candle! Both Lady Macbeth's death and the death of the young boy from Frost's poem are
tragedies. They are both about people who's lives come to an end before it is their time
to die, before they've lived a long life and aged to die a natural death. Comparing them
to a candle is suitable because just like a candle's light can go in a matter of seconds
caused by a simple blow, their lives ended in a matter of seconds. A candle that leaves
darkness once it is not shining any longer, can be compared to the darkness left in the
hearts of the families of Lady Macbeth and of the boy after their death. Saying brief
candle clearly compares to the boy, who dies before he even gets the chance to reach
manhood. Another comparison that can be made between Lady Macbeth and the boy, is the way
that after their deaths, their surroundings move on and go back to their regular routine.
In Macbeth, Macbeth continues his fight for the kingdom, and in Out, Out- the doctor and
the boy's family get back to their affairs. This helps prove Macbeth's words when he says
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player; That struts and frets his hour upon the
stage; And then is heard no more: it is a tale; Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury;
Signifying nothing., because he is saying that life is brief and meaningless. The boy's
quick death shows how life can be short and the way in which everyone got back to their
own businesses shows how life is meaningless, how when one is gone it does not make that
much of a difference. Its Frost's style of writing that makes his readers feel as if they
are part of the poem. Its almost as if the events in the poem are really taking place and
the readers are merely people who are standing by and watching it all. It is his writing
which allows him to make an allusion between the story of a tragic boy and the story of a
tragic hero. It is his writing which makes his poems so unique.