Comparative Analysis of the Poems Out, Out by Robert Frost and Disabled by Wilfred Owen
The poem “Out, out” by Robert Frost tells the story of a young boy who lost his life under and disastrous situation. “Disabled” by Wilfred Owen portrays, in comparison, a man who had a left piece of his body in war. Shared ideas by both poems are the insignificance of both characters, who have experienced tragedy and are turned away and moved on from, in the ongoing life of their former loved ones.
The characters in both poems are sympathised for in different reasons. In “Out Out” for instance the desperation of the boy who has experienced a hard life, on the other hand, the loss of the soldier’s legs and the dramatic change of his life affected by the war express him. Both are doubtlessly effective in terms of how feelings are created. “Out Out” portraits how the life of a young boy ends due to a tragic accident. This correlates to “Disabled” which describes an isolated soldier who hasn’t just lost the ability to walk but also his joy of living as a consequence of signing up for war. Both poems display the loss of an essential part of their body, which in “Out Out” leads to death, however in “Disabled” forms not only physical disabilities but also mental and emotional issues. Irony is used by Owen as he displays that the soldier “threw away” his legs because of insignificant reasons to join which leaves him being “legless” and “sewn short at elbow” which point out his disabilities clearly.
The young man in “Disabled” was described by Wilfred Owen as a sporty, attractive and popular boy; “There was an artist silly for his face”, “After the matches, carried shoulder-high. ” this confirms his former reputation which is compared by Owen to his current condition using the simile “Voices of boys rang saddening like a hymn” This Simile compares the daily fulfilled life of other boys with the life of the soldier whose loneliness makes him miserable as shown in the word Hymn associated with events like funerals. This contrasts to Robert Frost only mentioning the catastrophic day of the accident. With the sentence “ day was all but done” at the beginning of the poem he creates curiosity among the readers, because they suspect something to happen. Robert Frost also mentions his personal opinion about the accident; “Call it a day, I wish they might have said” this line blames the parents of the boy being irresponsible and not the boy who was still “a child at heart”This contrasts to Owen describing the man’s injuries. Owen blames the boy himself because of his prematurely decision to join the brutal battles; “He thought he’d better join. – He wonders why. ” “Someone had said he’d look a god in kilts, and maybe, too, to please his Meg” These lines show that he joined the army because of frivolous, meaningless reasons and was not aware of the real dangers of war. Wilfred Owen portraits the life of the young man after the war as morose, bitter and lonely.
The simile “All of them touch him like a queer disease. ” points out the changes the boys life has experienced, and that he now has to “takes whatever pity they may dole”. Owen shows that the young man is always dependent on help which makes it impossible for him to decide about his life himself and he is rejected by others because of his appearance. Robert Frost uses personification of the buzz saw to describe the boys death. The buzzsaw is described as aggressively “snarling” and “rattling” Frost gave the buzzsaw human characteristics because it was the worktool which led to the boys tragic death, also describing the buzzsaw as “leaping” out of the boys hand blaming the buzzsaw rather than the boy. The people around the young man in “Disabled” and the family of the boy in “Out Out” react quite similar in a certain way. The young man’s life in “Disabled” won’t be the same ever again, which makes the man depressed, in addition the people around him move away from him because their life goes on. “Tonight he noticed how the women’s eyes passed from him to the strong men that were whole” The quotation underlines the continuous daily life of other people contrasting with the young soldier just not being involved anymore. Owen uses the metaphor “that were whole” to symbolize that he is ignored by women because he is disabled.
In “Out Out” Frost describes the families reaction as “No more to build on there. And they, since they were not the one dead, turned to their affairs” This quote indicates the narrator’s inability to find an explanation for the sudden death of the boy. To me, the poem which is more effective is “Disabled” because the poet creates a great comparison between the young man’s life before and after the war, regretting his rash decision. The story including all the contrast and emotions created through the poem are truly moving and the devices used create a good visual image of the story. The story in “Out Out” is also very moving, especially because it is based on a real newspaper article. However, I found the sentence structure and devices used in “Disabled” more emphasising.
