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Out, Out— Robert Frost January 1, 1916

Robert Frost
Track 22 on Mountain Interval

First published in 1916 in the collection Mountain Interval. The title

alludes to a passage from Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and tomorrow
and tomorrow” soliloquy, “Macbeth”… Read More 1 35.2K 41 7

Out, Out— Lyrics

The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard

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And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load. Genius Annotation 3 contributors

And nothing happened: day was all but done.

The boy came from a hardworking
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
family with a strong work ethic. He
To please the boy by giving him the half hour would have cherished the time that
That a boy counts so much when saved from work. he didn’t have to spend at the
His sister stood beside them in her apron buzzsaw.
To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw,
The first person pronoun is used; the
As if to prove saws knew what supper meant,
poet is speaking directly to the
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap— reader. The commentary, with the
He must have given the hand. However it was, sad-sounding ‘I wish’ foreshadows
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand! the future disaster
The boy's first outcry was a rueful laugh
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As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
Suggest an improvement to
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all— earn IQ
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man's work, though a child at heart—
He saw all spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off—
The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!"
So. But the hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then—the watcher at his pulse took fright.
No one believed. They listened at his heart
Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.

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Mountain Interval (1916)

Robert Frost

1. The Road Not Taken 15. The Cow In Apple Time

2. Christmas Trees 16. An Encounter

3. An Old Man’s Winter 17. Range-finding

Night
18. The Hill Wife
4. A Patch of Old Snow
19. The Bonfire
5. In the Home Stretch
20. A Girl’s Garden
6. The Telephone
21. The Exposed Nest
7. Meeting and Passing
22. Out, Out—
8. Hyla Brook
23. Brown’s Descent
9. The Oven Bird
24. The Gum-Gatherer
10. Bond and Free
25. The Line-Gang
11. Birches
26. The Vanishing Red
12. Pea Brush
27. Snow
13. Putting In The Seed
28. The Sound of the Trees
14. A Time To Talk

Credits
Written By Release Date
Robert Frost January 1, 1916

Tags

Non-Music Poetry English Literature

Literature

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