“Out, Out” And “Disabled” Comparison

There are differences and similarities that are noted in the writings of Robert Frost (Out-Out) and Wilfred Owen (Disabled). They employ distinct ways to bring out their ideas and also stress their themes. They also use poetic techniques to represent their feelings, such as metaphors and other styles. The discussion below outlines the comparison and contradictions in feelings that exist between the two writers.

In “Disabled, Owen makes the reader realize the hardships that the disabled go through and how society shuts them down. Frost, in “Out-Out,” on the other hand, shows how people tend to forget about others whenever they die and carry on with their normal duties. In “Out-Out,” a sense of loss is created, which resulted from quick unexpected death. This is different from the “Disabled” since, in this other case, we meet the veteran who goes through a punishment which is worse than death, such that dying would be a better option to release them from his suffering.

Both of them also realizes the existence of ignorance among people in the society, which makes the main subjects in the poem suffer the consequences of this immaturity. In “Out, Out,” the ignorance of the boy, the overpowering, and the minimalism bus cause the boy to lose his hand and almost die due to overbreeding since he lacks respect and maturity towards the tool. The case is similar to “Disabled” where Owen uses the ignorance of the childhood, which results in severe and torturous consequences. Owen makes the reader understand that the ignorance of his character toward the people around him made him get into the war without having an idea of what the war was like.

There is singleness in the “Out, Out” poem since it is constructed in one stanza. This is used to illustrate the swiftness of the accident in which the boy is involved, together with the fate and also the isolation of the unfortunate incident. This makes the verse move more quickly than it would with the division of stanzas and rhyming words, which would be used to create rhythm. On the other hand, ‘Disabled” is divided into six stanzas with lines which alternate and rhyme at the end. This pattern is not uniform throughout the poem since the number of lines in each stanza differs. This reduces the speed of the poem, for instance in the fifth stanza, the stanza is short and slow giving the reader more time to think about the fatal effect of the soldier’s return as an incomplete person.

Various styles were also used by the writers to bring out their points. The use of styles such as imagery, personification, and juxtaposition is important in making the poems more interesting to their readers and also important in sharpening their minds and being keen enough to understand what the writer is trying to bring out. For instance, Frost employs the style of personification in his poem. For example, he says, “The saw snarled.” Saws do not snarl in real life, but they are given the qualities of human beings that affect the poem. There is also another example where he says he saw “leaps out of the boy’s hand”. We also realize that saws cannot get out on their own, but they were given this character to illustrate the carelessness of the boy.

Frost also uses imagery in his poem, for instance, when he says, “Under the sunset, for into Vermont in the sixth line. This has been used to describe the time of the day and also the location of where the events are taking place. Another example is found in line thirty-two, where he says, “little…less…nothing.” This is used to describe the pulse of the boy, giving a clear hint that the boy was dying. There is also the use of symbolism in the poem “Out, Out.” Like when he said, when the neighbors, friends, and family of the boy “were not the one dead, turned into their affairs” is used to symbolize that most of the people in the society tend to be forgotten once they die and other people resume with their normal duties.

Owen uses imagery in his poem in a poetic style. He says the soldier looks like a person sitting in a wheelchair and listening to the children who are playing. He also captures the image of the soldiers by describing his attire. He specifies that his suit is “ghastly and grey, and even goes ahead to describe how it is sewn. He says that it has no legs and has arms which are cut off and stitched at the elbow. This description enables the reader to have a picture of what the soldier looked like.

In the poem, there is also a change in styling. This helps the reader in changing the mood and also prepares him/her for the transitions of the events within the point. When it comes to styling, Owen changes the mood of the poem depending on the events that take place. This is used to make the reader feel the pain that the boy is going through and how the change of environment becomes more difficult with time. For instance, the tone which he uses when the policeman enters changes when the officer and the man speak privately. On the other hand, Robert Frost uses blank verse within the poem to convey the natural speech that would accompany the incident.