Robert Frost is one of the grand American poets in the twentieth century. The great man had published many of his poems but “Out, Out” is a different type of poem that is being written with the reference of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

For writing the poem, he had written uses his past life where a boy of 16 years old had died in 1910, New Hampshire. After the death of Fitzgerald, Robert Frost writes this poem by remembering him.

Out Out Poem Summary

So the poem begins with the poet’s explanation of animals. Frost is uttering that the ‘buzz’ watching the ‘snarled’ and that is knocking in the yards. This is imagery that prevails a dog is snarling.

“And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of
Woods,”

The dog seems is making dust and it dropped a stick of woods that is looking like a stove. A sweet smell coming with the gentle breeze and Poet can count the five mounts from where the cold breeze is coming.

“Under the sunset far into Vermont.”

The mountains are far into Vermont. Vermont is a state of the US that the poet uses to show the distance from his house to the mountains.

On the other hand, it is snarling and rattling again and again. So the whole day passes in that way. But from the poet’s hear a pity, sadness comes in and it is taking place in further lines.

“That boy counts so much when saved from work.”

This line seems unnatural cause from the explanation of a day he suddenly goes to the boy who was counting so much. Here the poet is trying to say about money that he saves from his work.

His sister yes to stand beside him and look at his apron as it may have more money. So, the money is for the super that they are going to take.

“As if to prove saw new what supper meant”

This line spread the poet’s emotion among his readers. A boy and his sister are waiting to have supper but they are concerned with the supper means. But next to it sometimes wrong happens to the boy.

“Leaped out the boy’s hand…”

Here the boy’s hand leaped out and seems something happens to his hand.

“The boy’s outcry was a rareful laugh”

Now, the boy starts a cry that perhaps seems like a ‘rareful laugh’. Till now it can be said that the poet is watching the boy suffering in pain maybe he faces an accident. Now the boy sang by holding his hand.

Oh, such a sorrow has been shown in that section. A sixteen years old boy is not that important to face an accident. He was doing a job that an older use to do.

“Doing A man’s work, though a child at heart.”

The boy was holding his pain within his childish heart. He is watching his hand perhaps would be cut off. He is looking at his spoiled life more than feeling the pain.

“The doctor, when he comes. Don’t let him, sister!’
So. But the hand was gone already.”

Tone of Out Out

These lines are written in a melancholic pattern where every time the reader gets sad and the tone is of gloom. The small boy still is thinking to save his sister and urging the doctor not to cut his hand.

But his hand is already gone and nothing to do with it. He is lying in the hospital and taking breath slowly perhaps it will end soon.

“No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.”

All are watching the boy and they are not the boy who has passed away and turned their affairs. So, here the poem ends but the meaning of the poem keeps going on with the same thoughts.

Analysis of the Poem

Deeper Meaning

“Out, Out” is a poem that never matches with its theme. Throughout the poem, Robert Frost holding a melancholy, a criticism towards the world.

The title seems that someone is saying to get out of the world. Maybe it is the boy to whom, the poet is saying to go away as the world doesn’t deserve his childhood. According to Margolis,

“A poem needs to find a way into itself”

In the case of the poem “Out, Out” Robert Frost does the same. So, the poem is being found by the readers through their process of thought.

When the story was about to begin, the reader may think that the poet will be talking about nature where bee, the dog is making sounds. But when the poem goes deeper suddenly a melancholy takes place in the reader’s mind.

“The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh,”

This line spread a woeful situation. Maybe the poet is also similarly gets hired after knowing the death. The next part of the poem is really important because it serves the rigidity for working.

Perhaps the boy was the only earning member of the family and his earning let his sister have ‘Supper’. At that young age, he is working hard to earn more where the other boys are getting an education.

This poem is relevant because it is catering to the crudities of the world.

Theme

Melancholy is the primary theme of this poem. The poet is expressing his sorrow or views on the death of the innocent boy who even has not ever enjoyed his childhood. It caters to the world an irony.

It seems that the world has its hand and blood is coming out of it. Some researchers have compared this poem with Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’.

Out Out Literary Devices

The poem “Out, Out” is a natural poem that is written in blank verse. In fact there is no presence of a valid rhyming pattern.
Onomatopoeia is a very well known poetic device that Frost has used here.

Literary Analysis

When a poet explains nature with animals this is called Onomatopoeia. “Buzz”, ”snarled” are examples of this. Then comes Enjambment, it is the continuation of thoughts even to the next paragraph. In this poem, Frost uses enjambment mane times.

“His sister stood beside him in her apron
To tell them the ‘Supper’, at the word, the saw,”

Alliteration

Alliteration is another rhetorical device. It is the repetition of the same sounds in a single sentence like,

“Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze…”

Imagery

Imagery is another poetic device that is being perfectly used. In this poem, Robert Frost created several imageries. The first line of the poem is also an image of the outside.

“The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard”

Except that, there are some more uses of literary devices but these are not very important like Personification, metaphor, symbolism, etc.

Questions and Answers

What is the meaning of out out?

Maybe Out, Out means go out from the world. Here the poet is addressing the boy.

What happens in out out?

In this poem, a young boy gets died.

What is the mood of the poem out out?

The poet is in a very serious, realistic mood.

Who is the speaker of out out?

Robert Frost is the author of the poem.