Writing Resources
The poem of Out Out by Robert Frost has a fascinating theme of how short and fragile life is The story is a narrative poem and is set in one long stanza and there is no formal rhyme scheme some rhyme can be identified in the repetition of the words like saw hand and boy which are throughout the poem The tragedy in the poem reveals how life can change in an instant how fast it can change and even can end without warning The speaker has a serious and somewhat ironic tone to them it can be assumed that Frost is the speaker The poem tone shifts from sweet at first describing the countryside and a boy working but then it turns into a horrific as the boy cuts his hand off and dies later The poem can seem cold and cruel because everyone goes on with their lives as nothing happened after the boy s death Frost describes the saw with human characteristics right in the first line of the poem The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard Line 1 Frost let the reader know that probably the parents were too busy to raise their eyes to appreciate the beauties of the surrounding landscapes And from there those that lifted eyes could count Five mountain ranges one behind the other Under the sunset far into Vermont Line 4 6 Lines 7 18 are dense with content and show just how good and savvy Robert Frost was with crafting words These lines tell a small story within the poem about the interaction between the boy and the saw Personification is an important topic in the poem the saw is given human characteristics for the effect of the poem to be effective The line the saw snarled line 7 is an example
