“Out, Out–” and “Mowing” by Robert Frost explore the differing values of life by creating a relationship between a tool and a human. “Out, Out–” forms a negative relationship between a boy and a powered buzz saw, whereas “Mowing” creates a positive one between a man and a scythe. These poems depict an individual hard at work and use the central image of the sound their tool makes to convey the theme. Frost also emphasizes the reality of the time and location these pieces were written in to contribute to the overall meaning.
The first poem, “Out, Out–”, is blank verse and written mostly in iambic pentameter. The theme Frost is communicating is life’s ideal value amidst industrial manufacturing. A boy is working with a saw which “Leaped out …show more content…
Like Petrarch’s sonnets, the first eight lines form an octet, introducing the scythe the man is working with and reflecting on the importance of the sound. That is followed by a sestet, which offers an additional analysis of the scythe’s sound. The final two lines of the sestet, like all Shakespearean sonnets, are what the poem centers on. These both have five stressed syllables, spaced by differentiating numbers of unstressed syllables. “Mowing” also has an irregular rhyme scheme: ABC ABD ECD GEH GH, not following any traditional rhythmic patterns of either model. In this poem Frost is communicating how in work, using only man’s energy, we get what we need and find satisfaction in that. Both “Mowing” and “Out, Out–” convey their themes using sound …show more content…
The boy’s tool “snarled” like an animal and “rattled” like the machine it is (613). These two words are repeated three times in the first three sentences, conveying the repetitiveness of the machine and how it does not think or feel, but only repeats. There are sounds throughout the majority of the poem: the snarling and rattling, the sister calling him in for supper, the boy’s outcry as his hand was severed, and his pleas to not let the doctor cut off his hand. All of these contribute to the climax of the poem, line 27, when the boy loses his hand and all the noises virtually stop. The silence connotes death as the boy’s heartbeat slowly dies away. He only existed when the sounds were present and when the buzz saw controlled what work he accomplished. Frost was showing how misplacing confidence in mechanized labor guarantees little satisfaction in our value of life. “Mowing” confirms this idea with a man who uses a simple, non-industrial
The first poem, “Out, Out–”, is blank verse and written mostly in iambic pentameter. The theme Frost is communicating is life’s ideal value amidst industrial manufacturing. A boy is working with a saw which “Leaped out …show more content…
Like Petrarch’s sonnets, the first eight lines form an octet, introducing the scythe the man is working with and reflecting on the importance of the sound. That is followed by a sestet, which offers an additional analysis of the scythe’s sound. The final two lines of the sestet, like all Shakespearean sonnets, are what the poem centers on. These both have five stressed syllables, spaced by differentiating numbers of unstressed syllables. “Mowing” also has an irregular rhyme scheme: ABC ABD ECD GEH GH, not following any traditional rhythmic patterns of either model. In this poem Frost is communicating how in work, using only man’s energy, we get what we need and find satisfaction in that. Both “Mowing” and “Out, Out–” convey their themes using sound …show more content…
The boy’s tool “snarled” like an animal and “rattled” like the machine it is (613). These two words are repeated three times in the first three sentences, conveying the repetitiveness of the machine and how it does not think or feel, but only repeats. There are sounds throughout the majority of the poem: the snarling and rattling, the sister calling him in for supper, the boy’s outcry as his hand was severed, and his pleas to not let the doctor cut off his hand. All of these contribute to the climax of the poem, line 27, when the boy loses his hand and all the noises virtually stop. The silence connotes death as the boy’s heartbeat slowly dies away. He only existed when the sounds were present and when the buzz saw controlled what work he accomplished. Frost was showing how misplacing confidence in mechanized labor guarantees little satisfaction in our value of life. “Mowing” confirms this idea with a man who uses a simple, non-industrial