Question

Remind yourself of the poem Out, Out by Robert Frost. How does the poet portray the intense awareness of death, darkness, absence and nothingness? In your answer you should write about: y y y y Circumstances that led to the boy s death Tone of the poem People s reactions The language used

You should refer closely to the poem to support your answer. You may include brief quotations. (Total 15 marks)

Answer
Out, Out is a poem where there is a lot of sadness and pity and there is death and nothingness.
Comment [A1]: It s best not to use this style. If you read the Englishbiz guide to writing an essay, it explains well there how to begin this kind of writing. If you have questions after reading this, do get back to me. Comment [A2]: If you read this back as the reader, rather than writer (in your imagination ), you should be able to see that what you have said is rather basic in the sense that you repeat the idea of death; also, the death in the poem occurs at its end but you choose to discuss it immediately. You are marked against your ability to comment at the levels of form, structure and language. Here you leap straight to the end of the poem, yet make no comment on structure and so lose potential marks. Comment [A3]: I would say that the death occurred (according to the poet) perhaps because the boy was too young to be working with such a dangerous tool, he was a big boy / Doing a man s work . Comment [A4]: This isn t really hyperbol e which is exaggeration for effect but an effective metaphor to try to recreate the horror and suddenness of the event. The boy didn t die immediately as your writing suggests. Comment [A5]: ???

Here s an illustration of how the poem shows this.

First of all, the poet shows awareness of death by portraying the boy s death. The boy s death was because of him working with a saw for long times and his inattention to work as a result of trying to enjoy the scenery in the yard. As stated Leaped out at the boy s hand or seemed to leap- . This example of hyperbole shows how the boy s death was achieved[;]he left the saw to cut his own hand and thus through this the boy dies and we can see the awareness of death. Through this example of hyperbole we can also see the intense awareness of absence, the boy wasn t concentrating on his work, thus the boy had an absence of attention and concentration which also led to his death thus creating awareness of death as well as absence.

Comment [A6]: Hmm. I think you ve struggled with the poem to write like this. Before writing about any text, the key thing is to get to know it well enough to be able to see its big picture and how the structure of the text the sequence of images and events the writer describes builds up to this overall picture. Comment [A7]: This is very wordy and says very little of substance you should be discussing succinctly the results of your analysis of the poem. Here you are explaining for sure, but not things that are relevant, and not succinctly. Comment [A8]: It s always going to be more successful to begin at the beginning . Leaping into the middle of a poem shows a lack of awareness of structure (see above). Comment [A9]: Again I get the feeling that your teacher has possibly over -guided you by giving notes that you haven t absorbed fully or even properly understood. You need to read and understand a poem for yourself and use any notes only as a guide and help to a fuller understanding of your own. Sadly, some teacher s notes to the class become a hindrance and prevent the kind of personal response that gains marks. That s my feeling here. I suggest that you follow the advice in a guide I will send you and then re -analyse this poem. Your analysis, as it stands, isn t really working well. Comment [A10]: Evidence? Comment [A11]: Evidence of age?

The poet shows intense awareness of darkness and absence using emotive language in line 24 as stated Doing a man s work though a child at heart This shows the whole concept of absence,

whereby the boy was stolen of his childhood, the boy s opportunity to be a child and play around was snatched, thus the concept of absence is shown whereby the boy misses out on his childhood because of being forced to do child labour. The darkness is also shown whereby the tone of the poem is sarcastic Doing a man s work, though a child at heart We can see how cruel and harsh

the people were, they were forcing a small child to do hard laboring work. This shows the exploitation and lack of friendly humanity and harmony. This shows darkness whereby people don t

take other people s considerations and just use people as economic resources rather than humans.

The concept of death, absence and nothingness is also shown by emotive language in line 27 but the hand was gone already This shows nothingness, the boy was missing a hand and it shows death, since because the boy went out of hand, he went out of life, which was one of the circumstances that led to the boy s death. The tone of the poem which here is sad shows the concept of darkness. But the hand was gone already. This shows darkness because the boy was now out of hand. I.e. handless and no one really cared I.e. The family members or the sister. This shows darkness because there was no pity or care among family members, the close bonding between the boy and the family wasn t there, showing us the concept of absence. We know this through euphemism and third person narration little-less-nothing and that ended it . Showing euphemism, the concept of death and absence of life and Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs , this shows the cold and hard reactions of the boy s family towards the boy s death, they were indifferent to the boy s death which shows darkness and absence of family togetherness. It also shows nothingness since the boy s family weren t moved by his death. Thus the poem here has a resentful and sad tone. Through the above example of third person narration, we can see the darkness, - no one appreciated the boy. The awareness of death and darkness and absence is created by showing the sad and bitter tone of the poem. E.g. He saw all spoiled. Don t let him cut my hand- off Don t let him sister . We can see through direct speech the darkness, the boy didn t want his hand to be cut but it was already
Comment [A12]: I m not sure you have understood the question. It isn t an easy or well expressed question, I would say. Your teacher should have helped explain what it meant.

cut, the boy wanted to save his hand but it was already lost and thus we can see darkness by this direct speech and sad tone.

The awareness of death is created through descriptive language He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath. We can see that the boy went out of breath and therefore died this was one of the circumstances that led to the boy s death. Through melancholic tone we can see how the writer creates awareness of death, describing how the boy died.

Finally, the awareness of absence is created, when the boy is ignorant of the fact that his hand is gone. This is seen through direct speech Don t let him cut my hand off sister It shows absence since the boy was ignorant of the fact his hand is cut.

Remind yourself of the poem Out, Out by Robert Frost. How does the poet portray the intense awareness of death, darkness, absence and nothingness? In his poem, Out, Out , American poet Robert Frost narrates an event centred on a young boy working in a saw mill. The youth, distracted by his sister s call to dinner, suffers a terrible accident that results in the loss of his hand and, eventually, to his untimely death. Frost uses narrative and poetic techniques to present the scene and these, along with an effective use of contrast and structure help the reader to understand his intense awareness of death, darkness, absence and nothingness. [in the essay that follows, there should be a series of paragraphs, each one centred around a different aspect but in the order given in the opening paragraph: use of narrative techniques, use of poetic techniques, use of contrast and use of structure. This will ensure that aspects of from, structure and language are covered which are at the heart of the mark scheme]