Narrative poetry tells a story in verse. With narrative poetry, the author tends to briefly draw the character and setting and form a plot. Robert Frost's poem "Out, Out" tells a story with a particular theme. The title "Out, Out" resembles the same words spoken in one of Macbeth's poetry. Although they are dissimilar poems, the words "Out, Out" coincidently have the same meaning.
Frost gives the buzz-saw human characteristics, or personification, and provides the object with the features of being evil and a threat. The buzz-saw in a way was a friend because the object was there to help the little boy in the poem with a chore that needed to be done. Friends assist each other when they require help and that is what the buzz-saw did for the boy. The buzz-saw only becomes evil and turns on the boy when it captures one of his limbs and threatens his life. .
The people or "they" of the poem who surround the boy at the event of the accident were probably innocent bystanders. They seem indifferent in the way that since death had not yet approached them, they bypass all that had occurred and went on with their own affairs. They seem concerned at first but with the news of the death, there was nothing else left to do. .
Frost's reference to Macbeth can contribute to ones understanding of "Out, Out". The title of Frost's poem compares with the words of Macbeth, which was receiving the news of death. Both of the poems reflect on the same meaning presents the same dominate theme. "Little-less-nothing," line 32 of Frost's poem, identifies with Macbeths "Signifying nothing". Equally, each quotation indicates that something of some sort has come to an end. .
