Commentary on Design
This poem by Robert Frost is based on the idea that everything is governed by design. Design is a higher force of power that decides the way life goes and in this case, design decides that the spider kills the moth.
In the beginning of the poem, a fat, white, dimpled spider is positioned on a white heal-all, which is a flower, holding up a dead moth. When Frost uses the word dimpled, he would be referring to the spider as young, immature, and innocent. This shows that the spider is not at fault for killing the moth since he is just following “Design”. Frost also describes the flower as fat and white, just like a baby, both chubby and pale, gain, giving the reader a sense of innocence. Both the heal-all and moth are white, and in this case, the white color relays the idea of peace, meaning there was no conflict involved in the spiders taking the life of the moth. The dead moth is described as a piece of rigid satin cloth. Rigid means that obviously, the moth is dead. Satin Cloth shows that the moth was pure, innocent, and graceful. Frost also describes the moth and the spider as “assorted characters of death and blight” which means that they are characters, playing out their roles in the design. Everything that is happening is so common that Frost says that the morning cannot start right without it happening. Even though this is normal to Frost, he still feels that it is in some way a little evil, so he describes the spider and moth to be ingredients in a witches’ broth, symbolizing witchcraft, evil.
