Robert Frost- "Out-Out"

Robert Frost- "Out-Out"

1. Content

   • Narrative poem describing the tragic death or a farm boy
   • He was sawing a log when he got distracted & the saw severed his h and.
   • His sister witnessed the accident.
   • He died as a result of shock and loss of blood

2. Context

   • Inspiration taken from a newspaper report about a young boy killed in a farm accident
   • Reported in March 1920
   • Narrative account spoken by narrator
   • Title taken from Macbeth

3. Themes

   • Harsh realities of rural labour
   • Pressures on children doing adult work
   • Hard-headed approach to rural work doesn't account for youth
   • Attitude of rural folk to death
   • Some people treat human life as insignificant
   • The shortness of Life
   • Rural folk oblivious to the beauty of nature surrounding them
   • Ambivalent view of nature

4. Form & Structure

   • Narrative account
   • one verse paragraph
   • poem doesnt rhyme

5. Rhythm

   • Regular rhythm at first (4 beats)
   • Rhythm shifts in line 7 to resemble the sound of the saw
   • Frequent use of caesura give the feel of natural speech
   • Frost deliberately spoiled the rhythm with his punctuation
   • towards the end the rhythm is shattered like the boy's life
   • Broken rhythm imitates the wayward/wild pulse and fading life of the dying boy
   • Shortness of his life is indicated by the short "So"

6. Language & Imagery

   • "The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard"
     • Threatening nature of the saw conveyed in "snarled" & "rattled"
     • Personification- comparable to a savage animal
     • Onomatopoeia - sounds imitate the sound of a sawing machine
   • "sweet scented stuff. . ."
     • Sibilance - conveys an aural image of the scented breeze
   • "...those that lifted their eyes"
     • suggests that farmers rarely took the time to appreciate nature - a tension in his role as a farmer & poet
   • Repetition of "snarled" & "rattled"
     • recreates the repetitive sawing action/sound of the saw
     • emphasises savage nature of the saw
     • Saw represents how man uses modern technology to control and obliterate nature