“Out, Out” is a graphic and emotional poem about the tragic death of a young boy. It's a powerful expression about the brevity of life and the fact that death can strike at any moment. ¹ The fact that the boy's death occurred just before he could "finish the day" leads one to think that the tragedy could have been avoided (line 10). This poem brings the issue of mortality to the reader's attention and shows that death does not discriminate. It could strike at any time, no matter who the person is or what they have or have not done in their life. ² Frost also refers to William Shakespeare's play Macbeth, in which Macbeth's famous speech parallels the events of this poem. The poem highlights several important issues such as the uncertainty of life, the inevitable acceptance of death, and the unpredictability of what the future may hold. This poem also represents the harsh reality of country life and its sometimes fatal endings. “Out, Out” was an appropriate title for this poem because the famous soliloquy it comes from is when Macbeth learns of his wife's sudden death. , Lady Macbeth. ¹ The first line of his acclaimed quote is that "she should have died from now on." She is stating that it wasn't time for her to leave the world yet, just as it wasn't time for the boy either. The boy had so much to live for, but now he never will again. He used those two specific words for the title of his poem because in Macbeth's soliloquy he states "Out, out, brief candle!" in which he imagines a candle being blown out. Just like a candle, the lives of Lady Macbeth and the boy were taken away, or swept away, forever. Unlike the lives of the two characters, a candle can be relit and begin... middle of paper... there just wasn't time to do it. In the last line of this poem, the narrator enters a state of complete detachment, almost as if indifference was the only way to deal with the boy's death. Nothing can be built on nothing. The living have lives to lead, things to still “build” on. Macbeth did the same. He turned to his urgent business after mourning his wife's death for only a brief moment. He knew there was nothing he could do to change what had already been done. In Macbeth's soliloquy, he says that "life... struts and frets for its hour upon the stage," but this boy had far less than his allotted hour. The boy's death was a great example of how death is completely unexpected. No one likes death, especially when it takes the life of an innocent child. Death cannot be predicted and this poem demonstrates the fact that it can strike anyone at any time.