Research Article

The Tranquil Narration of Death: Robert Frost’s “Out, Out--”

Geer LuHD Beijing School*

* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Abstract

Robert Frost, one of the outstanding poets of the 20th century in the United States, made outstanding contributions to the development of modern American poetry. Among his numerous works, the poem “Out, Out -” always occupies an interesting and mysterious position. It tells the tragedy of a boy’s death, while also presenting this pain in a tranquil way. This approach creates a great contrast with the extremely intense struggle and painful fear of death that people usually experience, which is why it is particularly thought-provoking. In this poem, the location where the story takes place is still the most common natural environment in his works, and also the rural farm he is most familiar with. He achieves this effect through obscure language, different images, and the movements and expressions of characters, in order to express the numbness of the protagonist and bystanders to the readers while condemning the oppression of society and the indifference between people. This paper explores Robert Frost’s “Tranquility” tragic color in “Out, Out -” based on some of the local culture and other related works associated with it. According to the analysis, he achieves this effect through his presentation of poetic technique and rhyme, language and tone, as well as the performance of the characters in the face of life and death, and different industrial and natural images in the poem.

Keywords: “Out; Out—”; tranquility; death; Robert Frost
Published: December 7, 2023
DOI: 10.54254/2753-7064/21/20231489
Volume: CHR Vol.21
pp. 260-264
Download PDF

References

  1. Ingebretsen, E. J. (2000). The Work of Knowing Robert Frost. The Robert Frost Review, 10, 29–68. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24727290
  2. Doyle, T. D. (1995). The Cold New England Narrative: Sangfroid in Frost’s “Out, Out—.” The Robert Frost Review, 5, 70–72. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43897145
  3. Faggen, R. (2014). Robert Frost. A Companion to Modernist Poetry, 358–366. doi:10.1002/9781118604427.ch29.
  4. Liebman, S. W. (1996). Robert Frost, Romantic. Twentieth Century Literature, 42(4), 417–437. https://doi.org/10.2307/441875
  5. MILLER, L. H. (1974). The Poet as Swinger: Fact and Fancy in Robert Frost. Criticism, 16(1), 58–72. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23099614
  6. Parfitt, M. (1996). Robert Frost’s “Modern Georgics.” The Robert Frost Review, 6, 54–70. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43897155
  7. Hendricks, T. W. (2006). In the Dark of Ether: The Unreliable Narrator in Robert Frost’s “Out, Out—.” The Robert Frost Review, 16, 117–121. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43897238
  8. Henderson, A. (1977). Robert Frost’s “ ‘Out, Out’—.” American Imago, 34(1), 12–27. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26303204
  9. Bethelmy LC and Corraliza J(2018) Transcendence and Sublime Experience in Nature: Awe and Inspiring Energy. Front. Psychol. 10:509. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00509
  10. de Graffenried, C. (1890). Child Labor. Publications of the American Economic Association, 5(2), 71–149. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2485612