An unknown author once wrote “Never take life too seriously; after all, no one gets out of it alive”. When reading this quote, there can almost be an immediate connection between two very good works of writing: Macbeth’s “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” speech from Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, and the poem “Out, Out –” by Robert Frost. Both allude to the idea that a single life, in its totality, denotes nothing, and eventually, everyone’s candle of life is blown out. However, each poet approaches this idea from opposite perspectives. Frost writes of a young, innocent boy whose life ends suddenly and unexpectedly.
His poem is dry and lacks emotion from anyone except the young boy. Whereas the demise of Shakespeare’s character, Macbeth, an evil man, has been anticipated throughout the entire play. Through these writings, we are able gather a little more insight as to how these poets perhaps felt about dying and life itself. Frost drains every bit of feeling he possibly can out of his poem. He makes the death of a little boy, whose candle burnt out much too quickly, seem uneventful to the people standing by, and there is no real sorrow behind the death of this innocent child.
It’s almost as if Frost is saying “so what” if someone dies. Life, in “Out, Out –” has meaning only to the child who’s dying. It appears the other people in the poem have no emotion about the child’s death. Frost agree with Shakespeare about the insignificance of life, but demonstrates it in a more extreme manner. Shakespeare at least talks about the past and gives us the hope that all of our yesterdays may account for something more than just a “dusty death”. Frost, on the other hand, wipes out his character and leaves us with the feeling as that death will silence the memories of all who knew the child.
With the major differences in these works of writing, there are also many similarities among the two. Both Shakespeare and Frost are trying to say death is inevitable. It takes place at different times and under different circumstances for everyone, but none-the-less, it cannot be avoided. Everyone also deals with death in their own way. Macbeth almost discards the news of his wife’s death, as he talks about life itself and how he feels about it. The people in Frost’s poem are also unfazed about the death of the boy. Another similarity is that in both poems, the people move forward with their lives.
This is a reflection of human nature; most of us don’t grieve forever, but eventually find a point where we’re able to accept the death a loved one. Robert Frost and William Shakespeare have been celebrated by many people because of their ability to express themselves through the written word. Here we are years after their deaths analyzing these fascinating poems about life and death. It’s clear they had similar thoughts about this subject at the time of these writings, even though their characters could not have been more opposite. For both poets, life is too brief.
