‘Out, Out—’
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.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And 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.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside him in her apron
To tell them ‘Supper.’ At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws know what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap—
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh,
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. 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 was 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 doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.
No one believed. They listened to his heart.
Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
"And they, since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs." Most people would say that the last line sums up the whole poem, but I don't think it is. I think it's just the beginningofa new life for the people described in the poem. The boy died and they would have to continue their lives as if nothing happened; it will be a new experience for them. Death is an obstacle that people have and need to overcome. But in the poem it seems harsher because of all the images Robert Frost provides. He makes it seem as if no one really cared, but in reality it was all their fault that the boy died. "Doing a man's work, though a boy at heart," makes any reader see how hard they overworked their young boy. If they had let the boy be a boy it would have all been avoided.
"And they, since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs." Most people would say that the last line sums up the whole poem, but I don't think it is. I think it's just the beginningofa new life for the people described in the poem. The boy died and they would have to continue their lives as if nothing happened; it will be a new experience for them. Death is an obstacle that people have and need to overcome. But in the poem it seems harsher because of all the images Robert Frost provides. He makes it seem as if no one really cared, but in reality it was all their fault that the boy died. "Doing a man's work, though a boy at heart," makes any reader see how hard they overworked their young boy. If they had let the boy be a boy it would have all been avoided.
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