Literary Devices In Out, Out

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The poem “Out, Out” is written by Robert Frost. This poem is about a young man who is cutting firewood with a buzz saw in New England. The day is coming to an end, and the boy’s sister announces that it is time for dinner. Out of excitement, the boy accidentally cuts his hand with the saw. He begs his sister not to allow the doctor to amputate the hand but inwardly realizes that he has already lost too much blood to survive. The boy dies while under anesthesia. Everyone goes back to work and forget about the boy’s death quickly with no emotion. The ending of the poem explains that life continues on, and the others who are not dead must return to work. The two themes of this poem are child labor and time. The boy lost his childhood at such an …show more content…

The poem includes personification, foreshadowing, metaphors, irony, symbols, alliteration and much more. The author uses foreshadowing throughout the poem. There are several words that start with “S” used in the poem, which is a traditional form of alliteration to convey a negative situation. For example, As well, when the doctor later comes to help, his visit is described with the phrase “dark of ether,” which is warning the reader that the boy is soon to die. The first line of the poem is, ““The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard.” The use of personification implies to the saw which is ironic. Later in the poem, the boy’s sister calls out that it is supper time, and Frost explains the buzz saw does not know what “supper” is. This is the point where tragically the youth’s hand is cut off. Two metaphors used in the poem are "Call it a day" and "No more to build on there". These two metaphors are very important and significant. The first one (call it a day) means to be done with work. The boy didn’t stop working, but if he did, his hand wouldn’t have been cut by the saw. The second one (no more to build on there) means the child’s life is over. If he did “call it a day” and went inside for supper, he would’ve still been

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