Death is everywhere, but very few people notice it. The poem “Out, Out–” by Robert Frost is about a boy who is chopping wood and, due to a momentary lapse in concentration, cuts his hand and bleeds to death. The people around him are initially surprised by what has happened, but immediately return to their daily lives. Robert Frost uses illusion, structure, and imagery to make his poem criticize the lack of attention humans give to the dead. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essayRobert Frost cleverly named the poem “Out, Out–” as an illusion of the line from Shakespeare's play, Macbeth, “ Out, out brief bougie” (5.5.23). The poem reflects the mood of Macbeth's quote. In the play, Macbeth learns of his wife's death and coldly responds: "She should have died now./There would have been a time for such a word" (5.5.17-18). Robert Frost wrote this poem in reaction to this indifferent response. He depicts the boy's spectators as indifferent: "[...] And they, not being those who were dead, turned to their affairs" (31, 33-34). This presents them in a very negative light. The audience should have cared more about what happened to this boy, just as Macbeth should have cared more about what happened to his wife. This poem also sets up a scenario very similar to that of Macbeth. In both works, the victims are considered innocent and their deaths are not really their fault. In Macbeth the woman goes mad and in the poem the boy plays with tools he really shouldn't use. The poem describes the action as "...a big boy/Doing a man's work, though a child at heart –" (23-24). The boy was not old enough to use the saw. He was not yet a man. Robert Frost's delusion in the story of Macbeth creates a dynamic twist to his critique of human carelessness unto death. Robert Frost structures his poem using a blank verse form and placing punctuation throughout the poem at key points to improve how the criticism is transferred to the reader. . The poem is blank verse since the vast majority of verses have ten syllables and follow an iambic pattern. This can be seen very clearly in the verse: “Stop him, I wish they would say” (9). This verse has both 10 syllables and all the others are stressed. This poem uses a blank verse structure because it most resembles ordinary speech and gives the poet more freedom to express his ideas to the reader. Robert Frost also uses punctuation to stop the reader at certain points to emphasize specific ideas and create suspense. A primary example in the text where Robert Frost both emphasizes an idea and creates suspense through punctuation is right after the hand is cut off, "[...] But the hand! / The boy’s first cry” (18). The exclamation point after "hand" lets the reader know that the boy's hand has been separated from the arm and creates a sense of suspense about the boy's reaction. If Robert Frost had not placed an exclamation point there, the reader would have gone straight to the next verse without understanding or feeling the gravity of the situation. Towards the end of the poem, when the boy is dying, the situation is shown in fragments: “And then – the observer at his pulse became afraid./ No one believed it. They listened to his heart./ A little – less – nothing! – and it’s over” (30-32). The hyphens create a lot of suspense in this section of the poem. Even if there isn't much emotion, the stress is still there. This helps engage the reader and them.