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Noris Flores

Professor Batty

English 102

September 20, 2017

Out, Out by Robert Frost

A summary of this poem is that Frost describes an inanimate object in this case it is a saw

as if it were living. The poem takes place in the deep forest part of Vermont and possibly around

the years of the 1800s due to the type of language used by the characters. There are multiple

people working in the forest and it seems that they are lumberjacks because they are cutting

down trees. Throughout the poem there is a boy being shown in the spotlight. This boy is not

supposed to be working with these men because yet again he is a boy. The boy cuts off his own

hand in the very middle of the poem and in the end dies. When the boy dies none of the workers

including his own sister care. First we will be analyzing the poem in what type of language or

meaning poet uses in the poem. Second we will analyze the poem in three different parts,

beginning, middle, and end; and will break down what the poet is trying to say in these parts of

the poem

Frost does use some figurative language. The example of figurative language goes

towards the saw that acts as if it had a mind of its own, basically as if it were human. The poem

does not have a rhyme scheme,the rhythm of the poem is more like if it was a story. It does not

have that rhyming feeling so it does not really feel like a poem. Personification was used to

describe the saw in the poem the saw, As if to prove saws knew what supper meant, Leaped out

at the boys hand, or seemed to leap( Frost). The poet goes into detail on the type of noise the

saw makes when being used by the boy. Frost gives a great description of where these people are
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working at. Also in the end Frost describes how the boy goes into shock and what the doctor tries

to do to help the boy out.

The beginning of the poem starts off in the deep forests of Vermont and some men I

believe are working there and in between all the men a little boy is found working with a saw.

When reading this the first time, the thought of why is this boy working with this saw?, but

now that I read it all over again two or three times I pay attention to what is going on in the

forest. Why is there a young boy working in the forest? Is he trying to help his father make ends

meet? Or does he just want to prove himself that hes a big boy and can handle a mature mans

work? There are so many questions to why the boy could be there working. In the first part of

this poem it seems that the saw is thinking to itself " Call it a day, I wish they might have said To

please the boy by giving him the half hour(Frost). It is like the saw is trying to tell the boy to

take a break already because its seen how much the boy has worked and maybe the boy cant

handle the labor these men go through at such a young age.

In the middle of the poem a new character is brought to the scene and it is the little boys

sister. The sister calls in all the workers and while she does that the little boys hand is cut off by

the saw. But in this part of the poem the poet describes as if the saw jumped out of the boys

hand and cut the boys hand on purpose Leaped out at the boys hand, or seemed to leap. He

must have given the hand (Frost). In this part of the poem it can be read in two ways either it is

made to be read as the saw was giving the hand to the boy or vise versa. Either way the saw cut

off the boys hand. The boy then enters in a state of shock and begins to laugh when this happens.

The boy shows the rest of the people that are with him what happen but during this part of the

poem it only talks about what the boy did and no response is given back to his reactions. But to
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close the middle part of the poem the boy looks at his hand and stares at the cut off hand but he is

still in shock the boy does not accept that his hand is cut off.

At the end of the poem everybody is surrounding the young boy that is obviously

bleeding out and still in shock because the boy says to his sister Dont let him cut my hand off.

The doctor, when he comes. Dont let him, sister! (Frost). The boy is clearly in shock because

he does not accept or see that his hand has been cut off already. The doctor comes but there is

nothing that he can do to save the young boy. As everybody watches with intensity they see how

the young boy eventually dies. They all waited till he gave his last breath, they mourned for a

moment and then returned to what they were all doing before. What gave the poem a big shock

at the end was how everyone treated the boys death like if he did not mean anything to them.

Everyone even the sister included casually returned to what they were doing and left the little

boy there And they, since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs (Frost). This was a

very tragic way for the poem to end. The boy was treated like nothing, maybe the boy was

treated this way because maybe they warned him about all the dangers he was facing and warned

him way before he started working in the woods. Or maybe because the boy was little and naive

the rest of the workers did not care of what could happen to the little boy. Another conclusion

that came to me was that maybe the workers are so used to seeing many men die when doing that

type of labor that it just seemed to them like just another death for the books and did not care

who that person was next, as long as it was not them who dies.

The poet uses a lot of figurative language when talking about the saw, the poem is so

simple but yet when analyzed deeply the poem is like blossoming into a new story. Robert Frost

is very famously known to date and wrote a lot of poems in the realism theme. This is explains
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why in this poem the characters do not care about the death of the little boy. Because the literal

definition of realism is