Out, Out— Lyrics

The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.

And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day,
I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.

His sister stood beside them in her apron
To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw,
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand
, or seemed to leap
He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal
, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling
. Then the boy saw all—
Since he was old enough to know
, big boy
Doing a man's work
, though a child at heart—
He saw all spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off—
The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!"

So. But the hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.

And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.
No one believed. They listened at his heart
Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.

No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.

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About

Genius Annotation

First published in 1916 in the collection Mountain Interval. The title alludes to a passage from Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” soliloquy, “Macbeth” V.v.23-28:

…Out, out, brief candle!
Life is 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’s speech in relation to the Frost poem is significant in that it suggests that life is short and transient, lacking meaning and purpose. The boy in the poem dies needlessly and his death has little impact on the community and its values.

The poem is one continuous stanza, unbroken, broadly unrhymed imabic pentameter, apart from occasional internal rhyme. A noticeable feature is the thoughtful use of punctuation to reinforce the drama.

The voice is that of a third person narrator, we may assume the poet, and the tone is largely conversational, though with a lyrical interlude from lines three to six. Yet there is high drama at the end when the boy loses his life. The composition is skilled and subtle, as the detailed annotations show.

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Release Date
January 1, 1916
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