Robert Frost Misconceived

Everyone seems to romanticize Frost; most being familiar with only "The Road Not Taken" which contains some of the most famous words in poetry and modern society. However perceiving Frost as a poet who embellishes words and things in life ONLY to make them beautiful, is a very wrong perception. I suppose I realized this after reading Frost's "Out, Out-" which I had to double check the author to be Robert Frost each time I read it. I took Dr. Swerdlow's poetry class and I remember him telling me that Frost was a harsh person, though in some of his poetry you would never guess it. Even the pessimistic "Nothing Gold Can Stay," is romanticized and beautiful through Frost's word choice.

Even Shakespeare is referenced by Frost (Macbeth's "Out, out...) and Shakespeare is one of the most celebrated lyrical and sentimental poets of all time (the beautiful wording techniques of each poet & their similarities in this sense, could explain the confusion about Frost's topics being about sweet things).

"Out, Out-" is full of beautiful words like Frost's other poems, but the situation that he is illustrating is horrible (to put it plainly) and utterly unpredictable. The boy cutting his hand badly is a tragic event but when the end of the poem brings his death it turns out to be a very dark message. The tragedy and unprecedented notions come in these lines,

"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."

Despite the obvious close relationship between the boy and his sister, and the close family ties illustrated in the fact that they have family supper together, Frost is saying that even when people die life goes on. Although this could be viewed as settling, Frost springs the death upon the reader so suddenly that it is hard to believe that this is a mechanism encouraged to help those who have lost loved ones with coping. It seems to be more of Frost calling human beings out who forget. It is a sad perception of the society and the world in which we live.