OUT OUT
Robert Frost
Introduction
Robert Frost :The most popular American poet of
the twentieth century.
The setting of this poem is a farm land, although the
scenery around the farm is beautiful, life is too hard
for it to be enjoyed fully by the farm people, even by
the young son, who has to work all day cutting up
wood with a buzz-saw.
The tragedy of the accident was based on a real-life
event that Frost read about in a newspaper and in
this poem it is presented with a mix of compassion
and Criticism
WHAT HAPPENS
-Boy cuts wood with a spinning saw
-Puts his hand in the path of the saw and has to have
it amputated
-He dies
-The people around him aren’t that borthered
Question
Consider the poem’s title.
How does recognizing Frost’s
allusion affect the reader’s
understanding of the poem’s
issues?
Analysis of the Poem-Title
• Reference to quota from Macbeth:
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.
- Macbeth has just learned of the death of his wife
- How life can be extinguished as easily as a candle. Highlights the themes in the
poem of human helplessness in the face of death.
- With his reference to this, Frost creates sympathy for the waste of a young life
• Not only boy’s hand out,but also his life being out. Mirroring the cutting off of the
boy’s hand and his life.
Analysis of the Poem
1 The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
场院里的电锯时而咆哮时而低吟，
2 And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
溅起锯末并吐出适合炉膛的木条，
3 Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
微风拂过时木条散发出阵阵清香。
• Onomatopoeia/Sibilance/personification:The immediately presence of saw
through vibrant,rich sound
• The dust seems to be the purpose,the saw seems clumsy and unproductive
(play into anti-machinery or anti-industrialization theme)
• The sense of smell-contributes the vivid image of the [Link] the
harsh noise of the saw with the ‘sweet’scent of the wood that saw cut
into pieces
Analysis of the Poem
4 And from there those that lifted eyes could count
人们从场院里抬眼就可以看见
5 Five mountain ranges one behind the other
有五道平行的山脉一重叠一重
6 Under the sunset far into Vermont.
在夕阳下伸向远方的佛蒙特州
• Enjambment between the three lines here creates a sense of beauty
• Description of serene and idyllic farm contrasts the horrors that are about to
occur
• Peaceful Tone:luring the reader into the false sense of security, which will
help create the element of surprise with what follows.
Analysis of the Poem
7 And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
电锯咆哮低吟，电锯低吟咆哮，
8 As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
当它或是空转、或是负荷之时。
9 And nothing happened: day was all but done.
一切平平安安，一天活就要干完。
• Repetition：represents the saw’s repetitive motion and relentless work
• The fierce personification of the saw also creates tension
• metaphor-the saw represents industrial labour of people and hard work
• Paint the scene as relatively mundane and everyday. Everything is normal
• End-stopped line/caesura:sense of abruptness and finality. “but”indicates
that some event is coming to contradict the apparently uneventful end to an
uneventful day of work.
Analysis of the Poem
10 Call it a day, I wish they might have said
他们要早点说一天活结束就好了，
11 To please the boy by giving him the half hour
给那孩子半小时空闲让他高兴，
12 That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
一个孩子会非常看重半小时空闲。
• Foreshadows something bad [Link] build-up of tension prepares
the reader for a terrible outcome.
• Boy hasn’t mentioned until this point as if he too is fairly insignificant
• Portrays the boy as a typical young man,emphasises the boy’s youth and
innocent.
• Hints the strenuous and busy farm work
Analysis of Poem • Does human is equal to machine?
• Simile/personification：as if the
His sister stood beside them in her apron saw acts deliberately—the
那孩子的姐姐系着围裙站在一旁 incident is also depicted as a
sheer accident.
To tell them “Supper.” At the word, the saw, • Theme 1: Death can strike at
告诉他们晚餐好了。此时那电锯， anytime and anyplace
• Theme 2: Human technology
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant, holds a power that is sometimes
好像是要证明它懂得什么是晚餐， difficult to control
Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap—• Repetition ：“hand” shows
the way in which everyone’s
突然跳向孩子的手—似乎是跳向— attention is suddenly drawn to
the hand, which is the site of the
He must have given the hand. However it was, tragic accident.
但想必是他伸出了手。可不管怎样， • Single moment drawn out to
emphasize the horror and
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand! intensify of the moment
电锯和手没避免相遇。那只手哟!
Analysis of Poem
The boy’s first outcry was a rueful laugh,
那男孩的第一声惨叫是一声惨笑
As he swung toward them holding up the hand,
他猛地转身朝他们举起那只手，
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
像是在呼救，但又像是要阻止生命
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all—
从那只手溢出。这时他看清了—
Combining immense sorrow and ironic commentary on the situation. Connect the poem to
the allusion in its title，In Macbeth，life as a kind of joke without [Link] incident
not just as a tragedy but also kind of tragic comedy，too
Left for reader to imagine who. The lack of detail about the others focuses the reader's
attention on the boy
Analysis of Poem • Reflect his age，showing that
the boy was not yet
experienced enough to be
Since he was old enough to know, big boy using the saw
因为他已经是大孩子，已经懂事，
Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart— • Creat a sense of the pathetic
nature of his death
虽说有孩子的心，但干的大人的活—
He saw all spoiled. “Don't let him cut my hand off— • Repetition and fast-paced
他看见血肉模糊。“别让他砍我的手— dialogue show boy’s
The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!” desperation and pain
姐姐，医生来了别让他砍掉我的手!
• Spoiled:strong word choice-
So. But the hand was gone already. ruined beyond repair
好吧。可那只手已经与胳膊分离。
• Boy has he nears death and
capturing a sense of finality
Analysis of Poem
The doctor put him in the dark of ether. • Pun: dark also refers to death
医生来了，用麻醉药使他入睡。 • Ambiguity of “they”-could be referring to
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
all of society
• Dash:through a progressive course,the
他躺在那儿鼓起双唇拼命喘息。
boy’s death is quick
And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.
• Quickly returns to the routines of daily life,
后来——听他脉搏的人猛然一惊。 suggesting a harsh reality of rural life where
No one believed. They listened at his heart. survival requires moving on, even in the face
谁都不相信。他们又听他的心跳。 of tragedy.
Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it. • The shift from a detailed, almost leisurely
微弱，更弱，消失——到此为止。 description of the setting to the stark, brief
No more to build on there. And they, since they account of the accident and its aftermath
不再有指望了。于是他们都转身 reflects the shock and the speed with which
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.
tragedy strikes.
去忙各自的事，因为他们不是死者。
Conclusion of Poem
Structure Contrast
• The poem consists of a single
stanza with 34 lines.
• serenity & violent noise
• It is written in ‘blank verse’, with
iambic pentameter and a lack of • youth & adulthood
formal rhyme scheme,which suits • panic & calm
the conversational tone
• speech & silence
• The poem begins with a
• life & death
description of the buzz saw that
later attacks the unnamed boy and
then takes us through the course
of the accident and its aftermath
从Rhyme看诗歌分类
Formal Verse Blank Verse Free Verse
Theme：Human and
Technology or
industry
Even in the poem’s relatively rural setting,
technology is a fundamental part of daily
life.
But just as technological advancement
grants people increased control and power
over their world, these same advances
also bring an increased potential for
accidents and violence.
Theme
Childhood versus Adulthood
The Meaninglessness of Life