Sound and Sense close reading for OUT OUT

1. Read it through
2. Snarled= tangled rattled=to make a rapid succession of short sharp noises scented= perfumed apron= a garment usually of cloth, plastic, or leather usually tied around the waist and used to protect clothing ether= sky
3. the speaker seems like he watched the boy getting his hands cut.
4. the boy got his hand chopped and finally died with excruciating pain. In the poem, it says “Under the sunset far into Vermont”. We can assume the incident takes place in Vermont, and most likely, people would be suffering with the Great Depression by looking at the author’s birth and death.
5. The tone of the poem is risky and sorrow. In line 7, it says, “And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled”. The saw gives the feeling of risk, since it can easily hurt people. The poem depicts sorrow with the boy dying because his hand was chopped.
6. ‘the saw’ is main word in the poem because it created the intensity and risk. In line 14, it says, “To tell them “Supper” At the word, the saw, As if to prove saws knew what supper meant”. The supper represents the freedom from work labor. Since the boy wasn’t aware of the presence of the saw, he got his hand cut. Even though the boy was dead, people went back to the work, which reveals the cold reality and touch life.
7. Robert Frost wants to show people that the reality is too busy keeping up with all the works that it seems like nobody is paying attention to human rights and other important values.
8. Frost uses the saw and the supper to describe the situation. Also his powerful language touches to readers.