Light And Dark Imagery In Robert Frost's Design

From the very beginning of Robert Frost’s writing career, one thing can be noted, the raw realness of his works. This sonnet, at first glance, does not fit the general sonnet theme. Instead of happy or uplifting tale, we are given one meant to induce shock and fear. Frost’s life was anything but idyllic. Having lost his parents before his mid-life and only two of his children living to see him pass, he was given even more reason to question the universe’s true design. In one of his more famous sonnets, “Design”, Frost uses light and dark imagery in the beginning octave to illustrate an occurrence between two animals that brings into view one of the most popular questions in the existence of God, before delving into the sestet to explore Design on even the smallest scale.
Through a scene that can best be described as “cold-blooded”, Frost uses the first stanza to set the tone for the remaining section of the story. The sonnet begins very innocently declaring “I found a dimpled spider, fat and white." The speaker has happened to come across a spider. At this point in the story, we cannot look too deeply into it’s meaning though. Frost uses light and innocent words in the iambic pentameter form to piece together a beautiful picture. The heal-all is a white flower known for it 's healing capabilities, as the name suggests, …show more content…
When a sonnet ends with a rhyming couplet, it is usually used to wrap up the tale as this one summarizes well. If evil has come in to darken the world, was this what god had planed, or is this the design of completely different creator? It 's not just any sort of design though, it is "design of darkness." So an overall being has come in to collect all these beautiful things, just to turn them into a horrifying scene. Would God let that happen, he asks. If God doesn’t govern the workings of that small Spider, then what is to say he governs anything at