In the two poems “Out, Out-” and “Disabled”, a similar theme of loss is portrayed. Both of these poems deal with the subject of physical loss, as both protagonists of these poems experience accidental amputation. Both Robert Frost and Wilfred Owen manage to captivate their audience’s attention, and also a certain degree of sympathy for the protagonists’ misfortune. They do this successfully, with the use of common literary techniques and linguistic skills, such as simile, metaphor, personification, contrast, and many more literary devices, which range from obvious to very subtle.
“Out, Out-”, written by American poet Robert Frost, is a very dark, death-related poem, which revolves around a boy, who experiences an accident which causes him to lose one of his limbs. This leads to his premature termination. After this incident occurs, people simply “move on with their affairs”, emphasizing the meaningless and worthlessness of one’s life. The title seems very ambiguous, but it is an allusion of a line from Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. The soliloquy is spoken when Macbeth just realises that his wife, Lady Macbeth, passed away. Macbeth compares his wife’s life with a flickering candle that can be blown out in seconds – “Out, Out, brief candle!” This soliloquy emphasizes on the insignificance and vulnerability of life, which is also one of the centre meanings of “Out, Out-”.
The author starts off this poem with a quintessentially lovely scene, describing the “sweet scented stuff” being carried by the breeze, and the Vermont mountain ranges visible under the sunset. Despite starting off like so, the poem moves on to become dark and sinister. “And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled” in line 7, uses a combination of different techniques. The use of “snarled and rattled” personifies the buzz saw, creating the image that it is a ruthless,