Imagery and Theme in Frost's "Out" Robert Essay

Imagery and Theme in Frost's "Out"

Robert Frost's "Out" may appear to be simple in its narrative, straightforwardly telling a story, yet its complex poetic style enables the reader to experience the tragic events that occur through a variety of poetic devices that Frost uses. The poem demonstrates the fickleness of fate and how some things are beyond an individual's control. In "Out," Frost explores the limitations that an individual has over how their life turns out through vivid imagery and its theme.

The poem tells the story of a young boy who accidentally had his hand cut off by a buzz saw and who subsequently died from the shock. "Out" highlights how quickly things can happen and how even a quick response may be futile. Frost establishes a narrative backdrop through imagery and onomatopoeia. For instance, the poem opens, "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." This description helps to establish where the horrific incident took place; Frost also helps to establish the region of the country where this lumbar yard, if it is a lumbar yard, is located.Frost establishes that this mill, or yard, is located somewhere where "lifted eyes could count/Five mountain ranges one behind the other/Under the sunset in far Vermont."

The tone quickly changes from a serene place where "sweet-scented stuff" fills the air to one of unexpected horror. Frost continues, "the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled/As it ran light, or had to bear a load/And nothing happened: day was all but done." Frost's use of repetition in these lines helps to illustrate how the saw was continuously running, whether there was no wood that was being cut, or a load had just come in. Despite it being a mechanical object, Frost personifies the buzz-saw to emphasize its seeming excitement to have reached the end of the day. While the that operates the buzz-saw clearly knows that it is quitting time when supper is called, the buzz-saw appears to react to the same dinner call; "At that word, the saw/As if to prove saws knew what supper meant/Leaped….....