Q. Take 2 poems and comment closely to highlight Robert Frost's thoughts on death.
Frost had witnessed death of loved ones a number of times. In some of his early works we find his grief intervened with the grave messages about death, such as its unpredictability and inevetnibilty. For him, death is unstoppable force and he often feel regretful and tired whenever he is faced with it. Frost is often shown to be in denial of death until he learns to accept and move on with the rest of the world thus illustrating the harsh reality that one is indeed forgotten after one dies and what comes next is unpredictable. The poems 'Out, Out-' and 'The Death of the Hired Man' clearly conveys the message he is trying to relay to humans.
Frost has shown a vivid contrast between the two personas in the two poems. They are both labourers, working in a rural environment. However one is an old man who has lived his life and the other is a child whose life had just begun and ended so abruptly. The persona from 'The Death..' the old man, has died of old age and overwork and has perhaps died with the only regret that he had not completed what his friend and employer had tasked him with. The child in 'Out,Out-' dies while doing manual labour that should have been done by a grown man. He dies a gruesome death due to a monster saw produced by industrialisation. It is ironic how something meant to change life for the better took away life. The old man dies alone in a rough edge seat while the boy dies with his family around him. Thus Frost portrays how life can end unpredicted with so many regrets despite what age the person is. He also illustrates how life is important and death leaves everyone petrified and in shock no matter what the age or condition of the person who departs. Death is indifferent about age and life's fulfillments, it happens when it must.
Frost has a keen way of symbolising death and other aspects such as love and loneliness. In 'Out,Out-' the title is an allusion from Shakespeare's Macbeth, one can immediately find out after reading that death similar to Lady Macbeth's and similar to the sudden burning out of a candle leaving behind darkness, is about to occur. Similarly the moon in 'The Death..' can represent Mary's love for Silas but it is also a universal symbol for loneliness and fatigue. Thus Frost has expressed his thoughts over death in the darkest and saddest manner.
Frost also has a way of bringing attention to the details. He structures every sentence in a way that is bound to shake the soul. Frost uses contrasting images to make the deaths stand out. 'Out, Out-' is set in a rural area with beatific mountain range and a sunset which depicts a serene scene where readers fail to connect the ending day with an ending life. 'The Death..' is set at night with the moon and the stars gazing down at the personas, this too depicts calmness yet again readers fail to link the night with life that may already have ended. The alliterations and repetitions concerning the saw which is personified as a wild predator draws attention towards the saw, the one brutal thing standing out in the serene background, this gives a clean representation of how to Frost death may be something he detests, something he finds most unpleasant in the world. The flashbacks and rhetorical questions in the 'The Death...' gives us an idea of the kind of man Silas is depicted as, that Frost has realised that all men regardless of their past have to die and wish to only have their loved ones around them when death strikes.
Frost has also pointed out how society turns a blind eye towards death, especially of labourers and lower class citizens. At the end of 'Out, Out-' it is mentioned that since everyone else is not dead, they move on. In 'The Death..' Warren gravely, but simply says 'dead' when he sees that Silas has died; in fact Silas's own brother is not aware of his death. Thus Frost depicts how society moves on instead of pondering over the deaths of a child and an old man who both died serving their respective countries.
It can also be seen though that Frost has presented life after death in a serene and mysterious light. In 'After Apple Picking' Frost has made it clear that he does not know what awaits him after death but he hopes for the best. Perhaps he is trying to show us that ht e child in 'Out,Out-' who was wronged by the world, spent his childhood doing a grown man's work would find peace after his death. Perhaps the man who worked so hard to earn his bread and only left his companion as he was not receiving enough by working for him, will be in a better place after death, will probably be treated better and won't have to work. Thus Frost contradicts himself by showing death in a brighter light.
Frost's best works are concerned with the meeting between man and death. Frost has taught his readers to cherish life, both their own and others', to live without regrets and to care for people around them. To look after the labourers, make sure they're not too young and not too old, to make sure they don't burden them and provide them with equal rights as theirs and supply them with the basic necessities of life such as proper food, education, shelter, proper cadges, cloths and such.