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Literature

The poem "Out, Out—"is the masterpiece of Robert Frost; he beams light on an important and realistic matter of life. His poem folds the curtain away and reveals the world of reality in which the train of life goes on, no matter how much horrible events occur, it never even halts at a single station (Kearns and Katherine). Death, injuries, disasters, in short, nothing bad has the power to stop the everyday life of people in this world. Bad events give momentary shock and pain and turn into sad memories that jump into an individual's mind sometimes, but a person continues to "live."

Robert Frost has opened his poem in an interesting way. His poem keeps readers in interest and suspense, they remain on edge, and they stay unsure that the ending of this poem will be happy or sad. In the start of the poem, the poet has created a fascinating scene in the first six lines, in which everything sounds amusing. However, the first line gives an alarming sound, but poet calms his readers soon with lovely and amazing detail as “Sweet-scented stuff” that is given by sawdust “when the breeze drew across it.” In the next lines:

“Five mountain ranges one behind the other

Under the sunset far into Vermont. (‘Out, Out—’ By Robert Frost)”

By reading these lines together, the reader gets an impression that this poem is going to be about some landscape, beauty of nature, or about something pleasant and lovely. But instantly, in line number seven the poem get backs to alarm the readers again by repeating the words of the first line: “And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled.” The repetition of “snarled and rattle” strengthens the impact on readers that something odd is about to happen in the poem. The poet calms the readers again by telling in the next line that “nothing happened.” Here the reader starts getting a perspective that this poem is about some kind of chore that is part of everyday life, or maybe it will describe the philosophy of life later in the poem. The reader still remains curious as the poet is not breaking the element of surprise. In the next part of the same line “day was all but done” gives a clue that something strange is going to happen in this poem. The remaining part of the poem start describing the incident that happened, and readers get to know what the poem is about. It is about a boy who cuts his hand with a saw, and he needs it to be amputated. The boy is not in favor to remove it because according to him it is equal to death. He thinks his life will be entirely useless and empty with this disability and he can afford to lose his hand. On the other hand, he knows that the damage is too bad and it is impossible that he gets his hand back which is mentioned in the poem as: “He saw all was spoiled.” He shouts miserably that he does not want his hand to be cut, it is mentioned in the poem as: ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off—

The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!’ Damage to this extent necessarily requires to sedate him to provide him medical attention that he needs but unluckily doing that leads to his death when people find out that he could not make it and fail in recovering from the anesthetic. The poet has poured the sadness of the boy in his poem at his own death. Moreover, the sadness of the boy in this poem may also be a cause of his death as the boy loses his hand and gets sad and depressed, he gives up soon by admitting that nothing good is going to happen for him now, his weak will power invites death sooner than it should have occurred. In the end, the poet gets more realistic and tells that the boy has been dead but others are not so everyone gets involved in their personal matters. Moreover, the fact that the poem quickly reveals the ending of the incident is because the poet is being realistic.

The poem is deeper in its meanings. It discusses an important message that death finds its way quicker to those who give up soon (Oster and Judith). The sooner one gives up, the sooner the angel of death finds that person and chapter of his/her life closes. Those who fight back and have strong will power can beat death at its way, and one must not lose hope in any situation. The case of the boy in this poem is an open example of those who choose to worry much and give up when they come across some horrible incidents like the one mentioned in the poem. In short, depression brings death earlier than it should happen (Pack and Robert). Will power, motivation, and courage are all that it takes to handle the toughest and horrible situations. Moreover, the fact that poet describes that everyone gets back to their work does not mean that the sister of the boy forgot about his death so easily as compared to the doctor or anyone else in the world. The poet tries to give a message that time is the best healer, sooner or later her pain will, and like everyone, she will get along with her life as well. Because it is the law of nature and that is how it is. Bad events happen but life goes, and there is nothing that can stop that.

Work Cited

Kearns, Katherine. Robert Frost and a Poetics of Appetite. Vol. 77. Cambridge University Press, 2009.

"‘Out, Out—’ By Robert Frost." Poetry Foundation. N.p., 2019. Web. 1 Mar. 2019.

Oster, Judith. Toward Robert Frost: The Reader and the Poet. University of Georgia Press, 1994.

Pack, Robert. Belief and Uncertainty in the Poetry of Robert Frost. Upne, 2004.