«La primera obligación de todo ser humano es ser feliz, la segunda es hacer feliz a los demás»

Monday, March 30, 2015

Poem Analysis- TPCASST

"Out, out --" by Robert Frost

Title
The title can refer to the casting away of something, here the boy's life, as a consequence of an event.

Paraphrase
A boy doing a "man's work" is using a buzz saw to cut pieces of wood, when his sister calls supper the saw seems to "leap" from the boy's hands and cuts one off. By the time the doctor arrives it is too late, he dies, and they continue with their lives.

Connotation (of some of the words)
"the meeting"-- the saw cutting off the boy's hand
"life from spilling"-- pouring blood
"the dark of ether"-- absence of feeling, perhaps even of being
"he saw all spoiled"-- the inevitable (death) was approaching
"no more to build on" -- nothing else they can do for him

Attitude
There is a somber tone, yet the attitude is almost apathetic. The tragedy occurs, however due to the lifestyle they lead they are made to treat the death as natural/common and as a seemingly trifling event for they have other things to take care of.

Shift
The shift occurs after the line, "Call it a day, I wish they might have said", this seems like foreshadowing to me and consequently a few lines down the saw has the fateful meeting with the boy's hand. Before the shift, there was a calm atmosphere "Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze blew across it"; "Under the sunset far into Vermont".

Title Revisited
The death of the boy is almost shown as uneventful, and since they had other things to do it must be put aside as fast as possible (out, out).

Theme
The suddenness of death and the callousness that can follow as a consequence.


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