Analysis Of The Poem Design By Robert Frost

In Robert Frost’s poem “Design”, the reader is challenged through the speaker’s questioning of whether or not there is a purpose behind everything. Frost achieves this through his “play”: a dead moth, a seemingly innocent spider, and a mutated heal-all flower. ADD MORE In the first line, the speaker introduces us to the first character in his/her “play” – “…a dimpled spider, fat and white…” (1). This description of the spider makes it seem almost childlike. Dimples and fat cheeks are commonly associated with babies. The color white is oftentimes associated with purity and innocence in western cultures; these traits or virtues are oftentimes associated with babies, due to their ignorance of the world. The spider, as of the first line, seems to be rather innocent. The readers are introduced to the rest of the play in the next line. The setting is a white heal-all. The color of the flower is important, because heal-alls are usually a blue color. This shows us that something isn’t quite right with our flower. It’s mutated, a freak of nature. Then, the moth is introduced. Our little, white spider is holding up a moth, which is almost reminiscent of a child with a kite. However, this image takes on a more sinister tone when you realize the moth is …show more content…
Instead of being positive or happy, this is a poem about the decay of innocence and existentialism. Frost wrote “Design” as a sonnet for a reason, however. Frost didn’t just one day sit down and decide to write this poem as a sonnet just because he could. Sonnets are a very precise, very ordered poetic form. This structured nature actually plays ironically into the theme Frost is presenting to us, which is the questioning of whether or not there is such a thing as coincidence, or if everything is carefully orchestrated by some unknown force. Frost is questioning the nature of design and freewill through a poem that is, in essence, highly