A Comparison of The death of a hired man and Out, Out- by Robert Frost

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A Comparison of The death of a hired man and Out, Out- by Robert Frost

Robert frost was born in Vermont in 1874 and died in 1963. Robert

Frost was a farmer and lived in Vermont, USA. Both poems 'The death of

a hired man' and 'Out, Out-' are set on a farm in Vermont which is

probably because of where Robert Frost lived and worked.

I will know begin to discuss the similarities. As I said previously

both poems are set in a farm enviroment. The poem 'The death of a

hired man' is probably set in winter so there would not be a lot of

work to be done therefore Warren; the owner of the farm would not need

to hire any workers because he would be able to do the work himself.

The poem ?Out, Out ?? is set in summer therefore there would be a lot

of work to do and this is the reason why the boy, at his age, is

working.

My next similarity is that both poems flow through chronologically

from beginning to end and this can be said to be the first level of

understanding, the next level of understanding is that the poem

portrays the last part of time that Silas and the young boy have

alive; the poem starts off and they?re alive and as soon as the poems

end so does their lives, thus giving the poem an abrupt ending, just

like actual death. So time plays a major role in these poems. Another

example of time is that both of the poems have a passage of time in

them. In ?The death of a hired man? the passage is when,

?I?ll sit and see if that small sailing cloud

Will hit or miss the moon.?

After this there is a passage of time, which portrays Warren spending

time with Silas.

?It hit the moon.?

This is like Mary telling us that Silas has died.

My next similarity is that in both poems the poet shows a wider

pic...

... middle of paper ...

...ing that each has of

each other and it seems to me that both knows how the others mind

works. In ?Out, Out-? there is no sense of relationship between any of

the characters, I sense that the boy is very alone in his workplace

and that he is probably out of the way from everybody else.

Out of the two poems I liked the second poem better. The reason why I

liked this poem better was because I felt that ?Out, Out-? was a more

conventional poem and I liked the use of personification to make the

saw seem to be alive. I could also relate more with the young boy, as

I understand him to be around the same age as me and personally I

would not be happy to be in his situation and to be working and I feel

quite privileged to be at school when compared to his life. The thing

I like about ?The death of a hired man? is the loving relationship

between Mary and Warren.

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