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"Out Out"

Penned by Robert Frost, Out Out appeared in his Mountain Interval in 1916. It is a narrative poem that tells the story of a young boy working in a farm with other grown men. He is working with a buzz-saw and is deep in his own thoughts when his sister appears and calls everyone for supper. This distraction proves fatal for him and he cuts his hand with the buzz-saw. As a result, he not only looses his hand but in the end his life while others simply move on with their lives and continue their day to day activities.

The poem is melancholy and depicts the pain and suffering of an innocent child already bent over under the weight of responsibilities and obligations. It shows a close-up of death, how cruel, how brutal and how random it can be. The indiscriminate force, from which there is no escape chooses its victims on whim and simply blows off the light of their candles with one forceful whiff. Yet this viciousness of death and fate do not stir the hearts of the on-lookers as they move on with their lives and turn their backs to the tragedy that they had witnessed only a moment ago and which could befall them too. Besides the depth of the theme portrayed by Frost, if one were to peruse the poem carefully, it would become clear that Frost uses many cunning techniques to hide meaning beyond meaning in his poem. His work has a layered texture in which he touches upon a multitude of themes such as brutality of faith, pain and death, cold-heartedness of others and loss of innocence due to a weight of responsibilities. The poem is interspersed with symbols and Frost also constructs the poem in a setting that would help the readers gain a better and more thorough understanding and comprehension of the work.

Frost begins his poem by introducing the surroundings in which the boy is working. The boy is working in a yard where the buzz-saw's noise is overpowering. Notice at this moment how the buzz-saw, the murder weapon of death, is drowning everything else in its unbearable noise. Even the beauty of the countryside cannot be enjoyed in peace and tranquility as the buzz-saw goes on snarling and rattling its deadly claws against wood. There is a slight, relaxing breeze blowing, which carries with it the sweet scent of fine powder dust falling from the wood and scattered everywhere. Frost has introduced all the proper sights and sounds of an American countryside where industrious and hardworking farmers are busy in their labor. The yard is located in a countryside that is surrounded on all sides by five mountain ranges.

The poet has introduced the mountain ranges for a number of different reasons. Firstly, it is done to reinforce the presence of nature and natural surroundings where the action is taking place. Secondly, the mountains end up serving as a reminder of man's helplessness against forces greater than him and his inability to stop the wheels of fate from turning any and whichever direction it wants. The mountains and their distance from the child also symbolizes the desire of the child to escape, as is evidenced by his inner thoughts in which he considers even a half hour break to be a precious respite from the toil he is ill-suited to bear. They serve as an oasis that beckon the child as a never-never land that whispers of untold secrets and promises mystery and adventure as opposed to the life of drudgery lived by the child.

The incident takes place when the sun is setting and, as the poet says,
"the day is all but done." The sky, bloodied with the darkness of the approaching night reflects the ill-fated incident about to occur. By setting the poem during the time of sunset, Frost has made a conscious effort to give the poem a darker, more sinister quality. Sunset is a time when man is at his most helpless against the forces of nature. Although a man hailing from the countryside tries to fight the darkness that engulfs the land, it is invariably a losing battle, when the man has to give in to the ever-increasing darkness, cease his toil and remove to the safer confines of the home. By setting the event at such a time, Frost not only provides a suitable imagery of the poem but also underlines man's helplessness.

What is most pleasantly surprising is that Frost, without detracting from the purpose the poem serves, introduces the physical settings in just nine short, almost terse, lines. He refrains from wasting any more precious lines and immediately gets down on the business of narrating the tragedy. What is even more impressive is that Frost still manages to conjure up the right picture and the right imagery in the eyes of the reader in just nine pithy lines. The reader feels the force of the tragedy because the setting of the novel emphasizes and assists in focusing the attention of the reader towards the narration and helps in building the mood and tempo of the poem. The natural surroundings, in which the poem is placed, increase the evocative quality of the poem. The landscape painted by Frost individualizes his work and gives his poem a quality of reality.
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Posted by: Kate L. Rizal

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