“I’ll sit and see if that small sailing cloud
Will hit or miss the moon.”
After this there is a passage of time, which portrays Warren spending time with Silas.
“It hit the moon.”
This is like Mary telling us that Silas has died.
My next similarity is that in both poems the poet shows a wider picture of the surroundings, which is to show the beauty of the natural world and contrast it against the sadness and depression of what is the inevitable; death. Also, in both poems, I think that there is a realisation of the inevitable. In ‘The death of a hired man’ it’s when Silas goes to the one place that he can call home; Warren and Mary’s farm, but even in his death Silas is still a very proud man.
“He wouldn’t let me put him on the lounge.”
This means that Silas would rather sit on the floor than on a couch, as this is just how he is. The realisation in ‘Out, Out-‘ is when the boy realised that he was losing too much blood and soon would die.
“Then the boy saw all-“.
I will now begin to discuss the differences between the two poems. My first difference is that Silas is a very old man and has lived a full life and his death is very peaceful and expected but in ‘Out, Out-‘ the young boys death is very violent and unexpected. One moment the boys working and all is OK, the next he’s without a hand and losing blood rapidly. I think that in the first poem the poet is trying to tell us that death will come to us all, eventually but in ‘Out, Out-‘ I think that the poet is trying to tell us to live life to the fullest we can because you never know what’s around the corner.
My next difference is that the two poems have a totally different style, the first poem is presented as a conversation; the poem alters between Warren and Mary speaking to each other whilst in ‘Out, Out-‘ the style is more of a more conventional poem, the poet uses many different poetic devices. An example of one of the poetic devices used is repetition, which is used to emphasize key phrases and to make them stand out. An example of this in ‘Out, Out-‘ is
“And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,”
Also in ‘Out, Out-‘ personiphication is used to make the saw seem alive;
“As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,”
This quote is saying that the saw is actually alive and can understand the meaning if the word supper and associates it with its own turning off so it made a violent struggle to try to prevent this. Another difference in the style of these two poems is that the first poem features Silas indirectly and we only learn about Silas through what Warren and Mary say but in ‘Out, Out-‘ the young boy is featured directly.
My next difference is that in ‘The death of a hired man’ even though Silas is in no way related to Mary and Warren they are very moved by his death this I think is due to a long history between Warren, Mary and Silas. The reason I know that they were moved by his death was because of Mary’s concerned tone throughout the poem.
”and he’s changed.
Wait till you see.”
In ‘Out, Out-‘ even though the boy in the poem had elations at the farm no-one was really moved or even bothered by the boys sudden passing, everyone just carried on with their work as if nothing had happened.
“No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned on to their affairs.”
This could be because they didn’t care or that they would mourn for the poor boys life but there was no time and there was work to be done. Another difference that ties in closely with this point is the relationships in the poems. In ‘The death of a hired man’ Warren and Mary have a very deep loving relationship, which has been built up over many years of marriage.
“What did he say? Did he say anything?’
‘But little.’
‘Anything? Mary, confess
He said he’d come to ditch the meadow for me.’
‘Warren!’
‘But did he? I just want to know.’
‘Of course he did.”
This passage of speech shows the deep understanding that each has of each other and it seems to me that both knows how the others mind works. In ‘Out, Out-‘ there is no sense of relationship between any of the characters, I sense that the boy is very alone in his workplace and that he is probably out of the way from everybody else.
Out of the two poems I liked the second poem better. The reason why I liked this poem better was because I felt that ‘Out, Out-‘ was a more conventional poem and I liked the use of personification to make the saw seem to be alive. I could also relate more with the young boy, as I understand him to be around the same age as me and personally I would not be happy to be in his situation and to be working and I feel quite privileged to be at school when compared to his life. The thing I like about ‘The death of a hired man’ is the loving relationship between Mary and Warren.