Out Out

Question 1

Opening

Answer 1

sense of unease, danger, foreshadowing
“The buzz saw snarled and rattled”, zoomorphism, makes it seem like a dangerous predator, ready to attack, foreshadowing later events. Onomatopoeia adds to a sense of fear and danger.
Later repetition builds tension as it seems more dangerous. Regular rhythm.
“Made dust”, focuses on the destruction of the saw rather than the useful products (ie. the chopped log) biblical allusion “ashes to ashes, dust to dust”, foreshadowing the boy’s ultimate death.
Sunset - pathetic fallacy close of day and close of life

Question 2

As it happens: fragility of life, factual tone

Answer 2

“Leaped out at the boy’s hand, or seemed to leap”, ‘Leaped’ is personification/ zoomorphism, adds to sense of danger, predator, Immediately qualifies it with ‘or seemed to’, brings back to reality. This line also marks the change from rising metre to falling metre (although this poem is written in blank verse) which reflects the diminishing of the boy’s life
“He must have given the hand”, Ambiguous, pushed too hard with his hand - makes it sound like he also sacrificed his hand.
“But the hand!” “The” is a definite article (not a personal pronoun) to highlight the loss of the boy’s hand. The grammatical fragment reflects the shock from the accident but also the fact that the boy’s hand is truncated, just like the sentence. All three single-syllable words are stressed to heighten the dramatic effect after the previous caesura. However, since this exclamatory fragment only comes after a long factual description, it sounds like an afterthought and it is too late for the boy.
“He saw all spoiled”, understatement, no imagery, dramatic event and you’d expect visceral imagery but almost dismissed. “Spoiled” is associated with minor events and underplays the seriousness. Link to title “Out, out-”, allusion to Macbeth “Out, out, brief candle … full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” shows futility of life and meaningless of life or Lady M “Out, out, damned spot” - foreshadowing the blood / death

Question 3

Death

Answer 3

Title “out out” → allusion to Macbeth’s soliloquy “out out brief candle”, stating that life is transitory and that it “signifies nothing”, ties into the “dust unto dust” thing again, a soliloquy with undertones of existential doubt → death = inevitable at the start

“They listened at his heart”, can’t listen to his heart, can’t listen to his heart because he is dead, dissociation - simple short sentence for emphasis. Change in preposition.
“Little-less- nothing!- and that ended it.”, dismissive, and understatement, “little-less- nothing!” Mimicking a dying heartbeat, diminishing list of 3 and disruption of metre (line 31 is iambic and this is irregular). They are waiting for a sound that comes but it never will. Also pause / stop/ “nothing” before the words “and that ended it”.
“And they, since they/ Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs”,
the fact that the sentence starts with the coordinating conjunction “and” shows continuity and this limits the pathos we experience and dismissing the gravity of the boy’s death, incites sympathy for the boy within the reader.
The third person collective pronoun “they” is othering and displays the lack of interpersonal relationships between the people in the poem. link back to intertextuality signifying that nothing matters (out out), callous highlighting how they can move on but he cannot. ‘Turned to their affairs’ trivialises it, nothing really happened to them and their life has not been disrupted. 3
The fact that the sentence starts with the coordinating conjunction “and” shows continuity and this limits the pathos we experience and dismisses the gravity of the boy’s death