Analysis of Out, Out
Robert Frost 1874 (San Francisco) – 1963 (Boston)
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 them in her apron
To tell them "Supper." At that word, the saw,
As if to prove saws knew 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 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 at 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.
Scheme | ABCDEFGHIJEKILMNOPQPNRSTUEVEWXTCYZ |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 01110010001 0110111111 11011011011 0111110111 11010101010 100110101 0011001010010 1111111101 0101011111 1101111111 110111010110 1011111111 11010110010 1111011101 1111111101 1110111111 11110011011 1001010101 011110101 11101110101 1001111111 0111010111 1111011111 1001110111 11111111111 01011111110 110111010 01011001110 1101111111 0101011111 1101110111 1011001101 1111110111 0101111101 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,522 |
Words | 310 |
Sentences | 25 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 34 |
Lines Amount | 34 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 1,179 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 306 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on April 19, 2023
- 1:33 min read
- 226 Views
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"Out, Out" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 13 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/30889/out%2C-out>.
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