We know, "Out, Out," just gets more and more cheerful, doesn't it? Fear not, though. We're here to guide you through the dark path. Death is an ever-present part of life, but in this poem Frost considers to what degree death haunts work. The boy works to stay alive, and in that effort he dies. Many people think that the poem is an expression of the sentiment that dust returns to dust, and the Macbeth title (along with line 2) reinforces that. One could also read the poem as a commentary on the value of human life amidst industrial production—World War One was raging at the time Frost wrote the poem, and it's certainly possible he had that needless loss in mind.
Questions About Death
- Is work simply a way to delay death? How would the speaker answer that question?
- Does the boy's family seem to care about death emotionally? Why or why not?
- When Frost says, "nothing happened," is that still true at the end of the poem? Does death appear natural to the speaker? What parts of the poem support your ideas?
- In what ways could this be a commentary on WWI?
Chew on This
Frost is doing his own building work here. He constructs death and work as similar in that both are natural parts of life.
From "the other hand" department: death in the poem is an unnatural force that disrupts the family's life and work.