Monday, April 25, 2005
Title - 'Out, Out'
The title of the selected poem, 'Out,Out', is a very interesting choice for this poem. Before the poem even begins Frost makes use of allusion, which sets this poem apart. Few poets have the ability to capture an audience before their work starts as Frost does here. The work being referenced is Shakespeare's classic Macbeth. Macbeth learns that his wife has just died and then delivers the following monologue.
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying Nothing.
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying Nothing.
This passage emphasizes that frailty and worthlessness of human life. Life is a "brief candle" that can be quickly snubbed out. In 'Out,Out', Frost tells a story of the death of a young saw operator; by carefully picking this title, Frost makes a thematic comparison between the two tragic works of Macbeth and 'Out, Out'. A knowledgeable reader could thus identify the fate of the poem's subject before actually reading the poem.
- posted by Haynes Finney @ 2:34 PM
