Where did the line 'Out Out-' come from in Robert Lee Frost's poem?

Answer 1

At the outset, the buzz-saw is shown to be snarling and rattling. The twin-sided aspects of life are echoed here. The buzz-saw at once transforms itself into the metaphor of the Giver of Life:it gives, yet it takes. The verb 'snarled' echoes how it is animate, yet machine-like; human, yet devoid of emotions. The verb 'rattled" sounds the rattle of the child and the rattle of the snake: innocence and iniquity at the same time. The first three lines emphasize how this metaphor is appealing to the three major sensory perceptions, the first to the ears, the second to the vision, and the third to the olfactory sense.

The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard

And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,

Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.

The tranquil scenery is contrasted against the loud noise of the machine. Science pollutes the serenity of Nature. The boy is obviously quite young for the work assigned to him. His thirst for childhood-exploits is condensed into the half-hour break that he gets; as we perceive from his sister exclaiming: "Supper."

The gruesomeness of the situation is echoed by the irony of the understatement "saved from work." One wonders if the poet really meant that, as the child's wasted childhood was better being spent this way. As the child responds to his sister's call, he carelessly drops the power-saw, and in an involuntary action of saving the power-saw cuts his hand off. The meeting of the saw with the boy's hand was destined as "neither refused the meeting". Critics have seen the same as an expression of New England Calvinist philosophy that was prevalent during the times. The philosophy preaches that everything in the world is predetermined.His hand was given, as though to desperately save someone from sinking. The boy's first response is "a rueful laugh" that renders the episode even more ghastly and horrific. "He holds up the hand "as if to keep/ The life from spilling." The figure of speech utilized here is metonymy; as something closely related to an aspect,is used to signify that aspect. Here, the word 'life' is used to denote blood.

Then the boy saw all-

Since he was old enough to know, big boy

Doing a man's work, though a child at heart-

He saw all spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off-

The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!"

So. But the hand was gone already.

The boy is embittered at the incident, but is appalled at the prospect of losing his hand. Though a child at heart, the maturity forced upon him beyond years enables him to see that his life would be handicapped without his hand. He fervently pleads for it, not to cut it off as a wasted/diseased part. It is for the reason that he would never be complete again that he dies, rather than the shock of his wound. He could no longer be the Man working on the power-saw. His manhood was flawed in the process.

The last part records the reactions of the others to the predicament. They react very hard-heartedly to the turn of affairs: "And they, since they/Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs." They perhaps render themselves immune to experience by finding refuge in the daily routine of life. They have an objective approach as it helps them deal with things better. As, the saying goes, experience is the greatest Teacher. And one of the lessons learnt was that Death is inevitable.The phrase "Little--less--nothing!" points to the ultimate destination of Life: Nihilism.

They listened at his heart.

Little--less--nothing!--and that ended it.

The poem thus leaves a thunderous effect on us through the subtle technique of meiosis(understatement). Harold Bloom has stated that the poem is "one of Frost's most respected poems, but it has not received the same depth of critical attention and explication as poems such as "The Road Not Taken" and "Stopping by Woods On a Snowy Evening".

Answer 2

The title of the poem "Out, Out" is attributed to Shakespeare's Macbeth and the lines, "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," (One of my favorite, apropos of nothing).

The topic of the poem is a young man who is killed in a saw mill accident when his hand is severed by a buzz saw.

Aside from this explanation, I suspect there is no other answer available. Frost was infamous for not explaining his poetry. For illustration: he was interviewed shortly before his death in 1963. The subject of the meaning of the poem, "Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening," came up during the interview, as the interviewer like so many before and since were taught that the poem is another death poem. When asked if it was in fact a poem about death, Frost responded, "It could be I suppose, but that's not why I wrote it. I wrote it about a small wood I stopped and watch the snow fall into one night on my way home." (paraphrased-not an exact quote). This illustrates that Frost like many poets preferred to let his readers interpret his poems for themselves; to let the poem flower in the mind of the reader.

Answer 3

The title of Robert Frost's poem "Out, Out-" is a reference to a line from William Shakespeare's play "Macbeth." In Act V, Scene V, Macbeth says, "Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow." Frost's poem explores the theme of the fleeting nature of life and the suddenness of death.