Commentary: 'Out Out' by Robert Frost

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                                                                                                               9/13/2007

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Commentary on Robert Frost’s ‘Out Out’

'Out Out' is a poem that tells the story of a young boy cutting his hand off while chopping wood and then dies, and how those around him cope with the death. This poem shows many techniques which are quite common in Frost’s poems; such as imagery, ambiguity and it also has a universal theme to it. This poem can be perceived to have several themes, one of which may be the lives of those living in rural areas and how they have to get on with their lives when they have lost someone close, because there is nothing else they can do. Another theme to the poem could be that of child labour in rural areas, and although the poem is set in Vermont, this is a universal theme, as child labour is known to exist all over the world.

The first line of the poem, ‘The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard’ does many things for the poem. For a start, the line sounds quite threatening to us and immediately we think that the saw will later become a problem or an issue. The line also personifies the saw, which further makes us believe that the saw will later play a major role in the poem. Frost also personifies the saw by using words like snarled and rattled which makes the saw seem beast-like. The word buzz is onomatopoeic which again personifies the saw.

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The next line, ‘And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood’ describes the saw’s purpose in the poem; it makes us more familiar with the saw. The next few lines set the scene of the poem, ‘Five mountain ranges one behind the other, Under the sunset far into Vermont’. Some say that this is a reference to the bible, in Psalms*. The image that this line creates is soothing and contrasts with the first line, which can be perceived as being threatening. The phrase ‘Under the sunset’ is ambiguous; it can be interpreted as a soothing image for ...

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