1. “‘Out, Out-’” A Poem By Robert Frost
Analysis By:
Raine Sagramsingh and Rachel Everhart

2. Robert Frost (1874-1963) New England Pulitzer Prize January 1961- JFK
Realistic depictions of rural life

3. Recording of “‘Out, Out-’”
(“Category Archives”)

4. Summary Boy using buzz-saw in yard Sister says “Supper”
Saw cuts his hand off
Boy dies
Bystanders pay no attention

5. Title “‘Out, Out-’” Allusion from Shakespeare’s play Macbeth:
“. . . Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. “ (Act V, Scene 5)
Macbeth’s wife has just killed herself, and Macbeth is in shock
Compares life to a burning candle, extinguished at any time: ‘Out, out, brief candle’.
“Brief Candle”= Young child, short life
“Signifying nothing” = Nobody cares about the boy’s death

6. Origin Accident five years before Narration
First person: “I wish they might have said” (10)
WANTED TO CHANGE THE EVENT (1st person)
Frost read about it in the local newspaper, but did not witness the accident

7. Personification “The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard” (1)
Onomonapea
“Leaped out at the boy's hand” (16).
1- Movement of the saw, and its sneaky characteristics. This line helps to foreshadow the saw’s actions in the future events of the poem.
16- This use of personification shows how extreme the saw is acting and how powerful it can be.

8. Imagery Visual and auditory imagery
“Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it” (3).
“Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap—” (16)
“The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh” (19),
Boy losing control of saw hand is cut off
Nature and a buzz saw to emphasize the death of the boy
Rueful laugh

9. Perspective Beginning: far in distance Sister enters: focused
Boys hand is cut off: pace starts to quicken
Boy passes: back into distance
Beginning: span is far in distance
Outline of setting and mood
Sister enters poem, span is focused on boy sawing wood for stove
Saw cuts boys hand off
Poem is more vivid
Boys hand is cut off, pace starts to quicken and everyone is surrounding boy
Once the boy passes, the town returns to their lives and span diminishes into the background again

10. Context “Doing a man's work, though a child at heart—” (24)
Realized he couldn’t survive without a hand
1920’s: youth labor
Life is work
About the plight of workers, that they never have time to recognize tragedy, and they’re always working, and the working world is so sad. It’s about people who never take the time to realize something terrible has happened, and never give themselves or other people the chance to save it. That boy could have stayed alive, if “Call it a day…they might havesaid” (10). But they didn’t, and after he died, they just went back to work.
Life is all work
Once hand is gone, work is done

11. Tone Calm, eerie, objective “So. But the hand was gone already” (27)
Indifferent
Outcome is not important
Narrator stating facts with relatively little emotion
The sudden caesura (hard stop within a line) of “So. But…” shows the unexpected speed with which loss can hit. On that level, it’s about humans not being able to comprehend the completeness of sudden death, and so not trying.

12. Diction Elementary Vivid and descriptive “Then the boy saw all—” (22)
Central cause of the boy’s death
“Five mountain ranges one behind the other” (5)
“Since he was old enough to know, big boy” (23)

13. Form / Meter One block of text Blank verse Some exceptions Enjambment
“And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled” (7),
Enjambment
“Five mountain ranges one behind the other / Under the sunset far into Vermont” (5-6)
Vastness of scene
Exceptions: By changing the meter, the audience will notice a change in tempo of the poem, and will have to stop and think about why Frost does this. In line 7: emphasize the danger of the buzz saw. Line 26: emphasize how worried the boy is when his hand is bleeding so profusely
Enjambment keeps flow going

14. Sound “r” sound- 58 times. Rough, rigid tone.
“turned to their affairs.” (34)
Sense of anger
Alliteration
“The buzz-saw snarled and rattled” (1)
The “r” sound helps the plot to build up to the climax and the boy’s death. translates into how poem is sensed.
The agitation of the “r” sound builds through poem, leads to the last line of the poem, “Turned to their affairs”
Final emphasis on “r” sound brings sense of anger with the outcome of the poem. Wouldn’t be apparent w/o “r”
Repeated sound reminds reader of a previous statement, or emphasizes a new idea. Line 1 is important bc it occurs more than once. It put emphasis on the “s” sound, which describes the sound the buzz saw has.

15. The End of the Poem
“Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs” (36).
Macbeth: “Signifying nothing”.
Boy’s life=nothing
His work=significant
The boy himself meant nothing to the people around him, only his work was worth their thoughts. Once he was dead he could no longer be useful, and the other people return to their work.

16. Works Cited
"Category Archives: Mending Wall." PoemShape. Upinvermont, 26 Sep Web. 12 Sep < frost-poems-discussed/>. Gillespiet, Patrick. "Robert Frost's "Out, Out-"." POEMSHAPE. Upinvermont, 26 Sep Web. 16 Sep < "'Out, Out-'." Poetry Foundation. Poetry Foundation, Web. 16 Sep < "Out Out." Skoool.ie. Intel Corporation, Web. 16 Sep <