Analysis of Poems, ‘Disabled’ and ‘Out, Out’ by Wilfred Owen and Robert Frost.
How do the poets Wilfred Owen and Robert Frost present the theme of loss in their poems ‘Out, Out’ and ‘Disabled’?
In the poem ‘Out,Out’ and ‘Disabled’ the theme of loss is presented throughout both poems being depicted emotionally and physically. Both personas suffer from physical loss through loss of limbs. But both protagonists also reveal mental loss and instability. This is especially evident in ‘Disabled’ as he struggles to come to terms with the tragedy and his change in lifestyle post-war.
In Owen’s ‘Disabled’, the theme of loss is presented through suffering. The repeated phrases ‘Why don’t they come?’ and ‘He asked to join, he didn’t have to beg’ both evoke a sense of confusion or questioning for the reader. The rhetorical question and the short sentences present a contrast between the two perspectives of the poem, these being before and after the foolish action of signing on. The quote, ’Why don’t they come?’ is from Owen the soldier who contrasts these two aspects as he appears to want to portray the suffering that the anonymous soldier had been through and how society looks down on him after his tragic injuries. It highlights the stigma that those with disabilities suffer within society. The first quote is referring to the nurses and women who were meant to be attending to him but since he wasn’t ‘fit’ nobody cared about him and he was ignored by people, this is shocking to the reader especially since he had just returned as a national hero and his life was drastically changed. To further support this, a list is created by means of the continuous use of commas, for example: ‘And half his lifetime lapsed in the hot race,’… In the first of which a metaphor is included to describe war and violence. Since war connotes suffering, conflict and hostility, this links to the poem ‘Out,Out’ as the environment they were both working in was hostile and dangerous. Not only this but both protagonists lost limbs therefore the trauma and tragedy that they both experienced leads to their suffering and loss.
The writer ,Frost, highlights the theme of loss emotionally in ‘Out, Out’ .This is evident in the way the quote ‘The life from spilling’ metaphorically describes the blood to create a vivid picture for the reader. In depth, Frost could be also evoking this picture, since his whole childhood has been based on work with his hands and was all that he was employed for and had no other purpose in life. Therefore cutting his hand off would have been very serious as his whole reputation and sense of worth would be falling apart in front of him. Hence the quote ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off’ which clearly shows how desperate he is that he wants to keep his hand knowing how crucial it is. This could also link to the author’s purpose of the story since Frost’s daughters had died from suicide and disease, the reason behind the greatly upset child in the story could explain the tragedy.
The poem ‘Disabled’ has a writer alluding to a theme of loss in terms of his independent life. With the quotes ‘How cold and late it is!’ and ‘And put him into bed?’ Owen assigns two meanings to the rhetorical question in the second quote purposely to mystify the reader. Owen also refers back to the first stanza where it says ‘mothered’ which has connotations of helping and caring which clearly isn’t happening here due to his physical state and lack of wellbeing. These two meanings could be: putting to sleep meaning death, or just getting rest. The rhetorical question ‘why dont they come?’ is repeated to emphasize his loneliness and lack of people to take care of him. The ‘they’ in the quote refers to the people who are helping him get through this injury. So linking back, the loss of independent life is conveyed by the nurses who aren’t there taking care of him because they can’t be bothered or are avoiding him, maybe leading him to his death. Here this reflects back on his loss of life since his injury has affected him so hard he can hardly move, this has a big effect on his emotional wellbeing, further building up to the suggestion of suicide.
The writer of ‘Out,Out’, reveals the theme of loss physically through structure. This is exemplified in the quote ‘But the hand!’ Ultimately the use of the short sentence and the exclamation depicts how desperate the boy is, behind which there must clearly be a reason. Frost uses structure to indicate how shocking the incident of him amputating his hand was. Frost does this by excluding stanza structure and it has very little rhyme. The lack of stanzas and rhyme make it seem that the poem is written very much like a story as it has a fast flow. This is then contrasted to this phrase ‘Little-less-nothing!’ The hyphens are meant to provide a pause which slows down the dramatic and fast pace of the poem. Caesura is also used to create pauses. For example in the phrase ‘The life from spilling. Then the boy’.. Frost uses a full stop as his pause but not only has he created a dramatic stop, the short sentence has also provided extra emphasis on the tragic accident that had just occurred.
Owen presents a saddening tone and evokes some disturbing memories from his time in the war in ‘Disabled’ . This is shown in the quote ‘He sat in a wheelchair waiting for dark’, which connotes images of sadness and creates a dark depressing tone. To further emphasize this, Owen has used a metaphor, in this case it is to imply how isolated and alone the soldier is. Not only this but the reader could interpret this as him being both lonely and that he isn’t capable of walking or doing any sort of activity without support by a human or object, which is supported by the word ‘wheelchair. However the word ‘dark’, could be interpreted by the reader to connote ideas like death, waiting and gradually dying. Then it must be a metaphor but it also could be interpreted by the fact that the soldier could just be waiting for the dark so he can go to sleep.
In ‘Disabled’, interestingly, Owen intelligently gives a sexual contrast which portrays the theme of loss quite well. The quote ‘leap of purple spurted from his thigh’ contains color imagery which vividly describes the object. This is contrasted with the main theme of the poem, of tragedy of trauma as the ‘purple’ could be an ejaculation which is associated with the idea of
bringing humans into the world, whereas war is commonly thought of killing them. Owen uses this contrast to emphasize and highlight the position the soldier is in. On the other hand one might assume that quote could be infered by the reader as describing injury and the ‘Purple’ is more likely to illustrate the blood. Owen could also be foreshadowing the eventual event and future of the soldier which is linked to the quote ‘a few sick years in Institutes.’ The word ‘Institutes’ connotes tragedy and sickness which connects the two phrases together.
The dark, eerie tone created at the beginning of ‘Out,Out’ represents loss of innocence. There is a semantic field of darkness at the beginning to set the scene and foreshadow the following story leading to the accident. For example,the zoomorphism of ‘the buzz snarled and rattled in the yard’ evokes an eerie and animalistic atmosphere. Another technique demonstrated in the poem is this reference to an isolated location: ‘Under the sunset far into Vermont.’ Despite the name and location, the fact that it is described as being ‘far’ displays how dangerous the place might be and if the persona was in some sort of danger, he would be very far away from a city or a hospital. Frost goes so far as to connect this to the loss of the child’s innocence. This might link to the industrial revolution in the 1900s when the children worked in a workhouse, which was damaging to them both physically and mentally. Certainly under these disgusting working conditions which can be shown by the zoomorphism quote which can furthermore personify the conditions and machinery as if being a human thus portraying how horrible the machines would be. This is why the snarl and rattle can be seen as being dangerous and unpleasant which not only gives the reader something to sympathize with, it makes the reader feel secure and happy as they themselves aren’t in this situation that was occurring before the 1910s and as none of us in this day and age would be working that hard and in that environment just to earn a few pence. Furthermore Frost’s personal life is shown to be displayed in the poem as he bought a farm in Vermont in 1940, which is related to the place of the story.
The theme of loss is presented through a tonal shift in ‘Out,Out’ when the Doctor told the persona that his hand would have to be amputated. This is shown here in the repetition of short sentences,’So’ and ‘Don’t let him cut my hand off.’ The change in tone suggests his realisation that it’s the end of his life and the short sentences help emphasize this point and provide tension. Moreover the repetition of short sentences and exclamatory sentences that begin with ‘Don’t let him’ reveal how desperate the boy is to not lose his hand as it implies how he needs his hand to work and earn a living. This in turn links to the notion of innocence since he has no other purpose in life. Additionally the idea of child labour is introduced as these inhumane conditions were most commonly seen during the early 1900s/late 1800s during the industrial revolution.
In conclusion, I believe that both Frost and Owen do well to portray the loss of life both mentally and physically in their poems and expand their stories of war and child labour well as they include lots of techniques such as similies, metaphors and short sentences to make their stories more interesting and give an impact on the reader. A sense of loss is displayed in both poems but Frost’s poem about the boy in a terrible working environment, ends quickly and without a gradual decrease in tone. This is similar to Owen’s poem where the soldier is physically disabled and the poem does end abruptly but it leaves the reader mystified as there is an ambiguous ending. There are also rhetorical questions that ask why no one attends to his needs which can lead to him wondering why he is alive and evokes the thought of what will happen to him.