“Out, Out-”

by Robert
Frost
Prepared by
Shaila Nasreen
Assistant Professor
The Head of The
Department of English
The Background of The Poem
"Out, Out—" is a single stanza poem authored by American poet
Robert Frost, relating the accidental death of young boy. The title of
the poem is an allusion to William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth
("Out, out, brief candle ..." in the Tomorrow and tomorrow and
tomorrow soliloquy).s. It refers to how unpredictable and fragile life is.
The poem was written in memory of 16-year-old Raymond Tracy
Fitzgerald, whom Frost had befriended while living in Franconia, New
Hampshire. Fitzgerald had died on March 24, 1910 after an accident
similar to the accident related in “Out, Out—”.
The poem was first published in the July 1916 issue of McClure's before
being included in the collection Mountain Interval.
A young man is cutting firewood with a buzz saw in New England. Near
the end of the day, the boy’s sister announces that it is time for dinner
and, out of excitement, the boy accidentally cuts his hand with the
saw. He begs his sister not to allow the doctor to amputate the hand
but inwardly realizes that he has already lost too much blood to
survive. The boy dies while under anesthesia, and everyone goes back
to work.
The Theme
Death, helplessness of human beings and fragility of
life are the major themes of this poem. The speaker
has a somber, serious, regretful attitude, an ironic
tone, and a vivid descriptive voice towards the
events occurring throughout the poem. Shifting from
enthusiastic to a more depressing mood in “Out,
Out”, Robert Frost uses personification, imagery,
accidental repetition, irony, moral standards and
time-period diction in order to criticize the social
acceptance of the dangers of such an industrialized
society . The boy in the poem chops off his hand due
to a momentary concentration laps and bleeds to
death. The people around him , though startled at
first, goes back to their daily works immediately .Frost
conveys his criticism to how little people pay
attention to the dead .