There's a lot of blen...We know, "Out, Out," just gets more and more cheerful, doesn't it?
From "the other hand" department: death in the poem is an unnatural force that disrupts the family's life and work. Analysis Frost uses the method of personification to great effect in this poem.
We're here to guide you through the dark path.
Machines help people do their labor, but they can be deadly instruments.
When the sister makes the dinner announcement, the saw demonstrates that it has a mind of its own by leaping out of the boys hand in its excitement. We know, "Out, Out," just gets more and more cheerful, doesn't it? There are arguably several themes at work in this poem, but I think Frost's choice of title points us toward what he considers to be the most important. ‘Out, out’ is a poem written by the American poet Robert Frost. The focus here is … Robert Frost is the master of posing huge philosophical, societal questions in small, easy-to-understand ways. The boy died having his hand lacerated by the buzz saw with which he was working. The poem is set in rural Vermont, where a young boy cutting wood with a buzz saw is called in for "supper" by his sister. It's an essential activity...This is a little more specific than just "work."
"Out, Out" is a poem by American poet Robert Frost, published in Frost's 1916 collection Mountain Interval and based on a true incident that happened to Frost's friend's son. The buzz saw, though technically an inanimate object, is described as a cognizant being, aggressively snarling and rattling as it does its work. Close Search
Frost is doing his own building work here. "Out, Out—" is a short narrative poem recounting the tragic death of a boy who has his hand cut off by a saw.
He works on it from a different perspective of a Thoreau or a Whitman, but there are still those basic, meaty q...What's the point of chopping wood? He knows that not all ideas work on battlefields, in universities, or state capitals—in this poem, we're still on a rural New England farm. Men and Masculinity. One could also read the poem as a commentary on the value of human life amidst industrial production—World War One was raging at the time Frost wrote the poem, and it's certainly possible he had that needless loss in mind. Frost wrote it in the memory of a neighborhood boy who used to play with his children. (Other than to measure how much wood a woodchuck could chuck, we mean.) He works on it from a different perspective of a Thoreau or a Whitman, but there are still those basic, meaty questions of work, mortality, loss, and man in nature. He constructs death and work as similar in that both are natural parts of life. We're here to guide you through the dark path.
Frost refuses to lay blame for the injury on the boy, who is still a child at heart.
Out, Out Themes. You've been inactive for a while, logging you out in a few seconds...If there's one thing Robert Frost works on constantly, it's the theme of masculinity. If there's one thing Robert Frost works on constantly, it's the theme of masculinity. Fear not, though. One theme of this poem is that life is unpredictable and that accidents are simply a part of life.
Many people think that the poem is an expression of the sentiment that dust returns to dust, and the Macbeth title (along with line 2) reinforces that. We know, "Out, Out," just gets more and more cheerful, doesn't it? Death is an ever-present part of life, but in this poem Frost considers to what degree death haunts work. By Robert Frost. The poem dramatically describes the tragic death of the boy amidst the setting of a cruel rural life. We're here to guide you through the dark path. In the case of "Out, Out," we're talking about a saw. Fear not, though. The boy works to stay alive, and in that effort he dies. Fear not, though. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on Javascript in your browser. By entering your email address you agree to receive emails from Shmoop and verify that you are over the age of 13.
Seriously, these farmers cut wood for their stove to keep warm.