Out Out------Macbeth Assignment
"Out, Out - "
by: Robert Frost
The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it.
And from there those that lifted eyes could count
Five mountain ranges one behind the other
Under the sunset far into Vermont.
And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled,
As it ran light, or had to bear a load.
And nothing happened: day was all but done.
Call it a day, I wish they might have said
To please the boy by giving him the half hour
That a boy counts so much when saved from work.
His sister stood beside him in her apron
To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw,
As if it meant to prove saws know what supper meant,
Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap He must have given the hand. However it was,
Neither refused the meeting. But the hand!
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man's work, though a child at heart He saw all was spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!"
So. The hand was gone already.
The doctor put him in the dark of ether.
He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath.
And then - the watcher at his pulse took a fright.
No one believed. They listened to his heart.
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.
From "Complete Poems of Robert Frost", 1916
5
10
15
20
25
30
Macbeth Viv
Macbeth:
She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
5
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
10
Multiple-Choice Questions
Directions (1–10): Select the best suggested answer to each question and write its number in the space
provided on the answer sheet. The questions may help you think about the ideas and information you
might want to use in your essay. You may return to these questions anytime you wish.
Passage I (the poem) — Questions
1–5 refer to Passage I.
Passage II (the excerpt) — Questions
6–10 refer to Passage II.
1. The repetition in line 7 adds a feeling of:
6. The “brief candle” in line 8most likely refers to:
(1) death
(2) life
(3) love
(4) independence
(1) excitement
(2) monotony
(3) confusion
(4) understatement
2. The saw “leapt out of the boy’s hand” (line 16)
Is an example of:
(1) metaphor
(2) allusion
(3) hyperbole
(4) personification
3. In line 26, “the dark of ether” most likely
refers to
(1) hell
(2) anesthetic
(3) death
(4) a dark room
4. “Sweet scented stuff” (line 3) is an example of:
(1) alliteration
(2) personification
(3) assonance
(4) tone
5. The last two lines of the poem highly affect
the:
(1) tone
(2) setting
(3) characterization
(4) rhetoric
7. “Life’s but a walking shadow” in line 9 is an
example of:
(1) simile
(2) metaphor
(3) hyperbole
(4) contrast
8. Lines 9—10 get the point across that life is:
(1) insignificant
(2) dark
(3) short
(4) exciting
9. The tone of the passage is:
(1) somber
(2) joyous
(3) hopeful
(4) regretful
10. The excessive references to time contribute
most to the:
(1) allusion
(2) theme
(3) poetry
(4) contrast