Poem Summary
Lines 1-3
The poem begins with a description of the buzz saw that later “attacks” the unnamed boy. Frost personifies the saw, saying it “snarled and rattled.” He also contrasts the harsh noise of the saw with the “sweet” scent of the wood that the saw cuts into pieces. This is the first of the poem’s several contrasts (including serenity and violence, youth and adulthood, panic and calm, speech and silence, and, of course, life and death).
Lines 4-8
Frost clarifies the setting in these lines: the action is occurring in rural Vermont, and from where the boy is working one can see five mountain ranges. This peaceful and picturesque sight, like the “sweet-scented” wood mentioned earlier, contrasts the horrors that are about to occur. The sun is setting and day is ending — as the boy’s life will end at the conclusion of the poem. Frost reminds the reader of the saw’s power by repeating the words “snarled and rattled.”
Lines 9-12
The speaker expresses his wish that someone — presumably an adult — would have told the boy to “Call it a day”; doing so would have prevented the accident. The speaker’s wish raises the issue of the boy behaving (and eventually dying) like a man, an issue that becomes more pronounced as the poem proceeds. A boy loves to gain a half hour and be “saved from work,” but this boy did not (as the speaker hints) receive such a lucky reprieve.
Lines 13-18
The section describes the accident as well as the speaker’s attempt to make sense of why it happened in the first place. The image of the girl in an apron yelling, “Supper!” recalls the idea of the boy behaving like an adult — like her brother, she is helping with the chores and, in doing so, entering the world of adulthood. After her announcement, the speaker first suggests that the saw, in an attempt to show its intelligence, “Leaped out at the boy’s hand.” Again, personification is used to imply that the saw has a mind of its own. However, the speaker realizes that this is simply impossible, and qualifies his initial description of the saw’s “leap” with the phrase, “or seemed to leap.” His confusion over why such a thing happened increases in the next lines: “He must have given the hand. However it was, / Neither refused the meeting.” Ultimately, all the speaker can conclude is that both the boy and the saw had a “meeting,” which itself is an odd term, since “meeting” usually describes a meeting of people with other people, not inanimate objects. Thus, the speaker cannot wholly abandon the notion of the personified saw and, although he has already discounted such an idea (with “or seemed to leap”), he clings to it as one possible way to explain the boy’s otherwise meaningless death.
Lines 19-22
As the previous lines depict the speaker’s reaction to the accident, these lines depict the boy’s reaction. The reader learns that the boy’s “first outcry was a rueful laugh” — a decidedly adult reaction combining immense sorrow, disbelief, and an ironic commentary on the situation. The image of the boy trying to keep his hand balanced on his arm “to keep / The life from spilling” contrasts that of the “Five mountain ranges one behind the other” first presented to the reader.
Lines 22-27
After his initial panic, the boy becomes prophetic. (According to many old legends and mythologies, dying people could suddenly have visions of the future.) Since the boy is about to die a “man’s” death, he is “old enough to know” that nothing will save him after losing so much blood.
The speaker recalls the idea of the boy’s entering the world of adulthood when he calls him a “big boy / Doing a man’s work, though a child at heart.” The boy’s pleadings to his sister — his only spoken words in the poem — reflect his age and create a sense of the pathetic nature of his death. The reader is moved, but the speaker seems cold: his reaction to the boy’s plea is, “So. But the hand was gone already.” This decidedly detached response reflects the speaker giving up his search for explanations for the accident. All he can say is, “So” (for the boy’s expression of terror needs no explanation) and “But the hand was gone already.” While the speaker earlier dwelled on the possibility of personification, he has now retreated into the world of facts. There is, ultimately, nothing to say about the boy’s death other than the facts that led up to it
Lines 28-32
These lines describe the doctor’s attempts at saving the boy and the boy’s final breaths. The “dark of ether” into which the doctor guides the boy is like the underworld to which many mythological heroes journey — another of the poem’s ironies. When told that the boy “puffed out his lips with his breath,” the reader is invited to contrast this image with the earlier one of the boy running and yelling to his sister. Like all living things, he has moved from a world of noisy action to one of quiet stillness. Like the earlier statement, “But the hand was gone already,” the description of the boy’s final moments is shocking because of the detached tone in which it is described: “Little — less — nothing! — and that ended it.”
Lines 33-34
The final lines reflect the speaker’s turning wholly toward an attitude of detachment and seeming indifference. His final remark of how both the doctor and the family “turned to their affairs” seems callous and almost offensive (especially with he word “affairs,” implying that they all began riffling through their social calendars) — but one must keep in mind that the language here is more figurative than literal. Eventually they “turned to their affairs,” since there is simply nothing else for them to do. Since there is “No more to build on there” and “they / Were not the one dead,” the adults must continue their lives, bereft of both the boy and any solid explanation for why he had to die such a terrible death
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