Injuries In 'Out And Out, Out' By Robert Frost

How are injuries and their effects explored in the poems Disabled by Wilfred Owen and Out, Out by Robert Frost?

“Out, Out” and “Disabled” both represent physical injuries and their effects in several ways. Robert Frost and Wilfred Owen both show the consequences of injuries, for example they demonstrate how injuries caused physical pain due to industrial advances, psychological impacts and how the people around him felt. In addition, they also show how society felt towards the injured and how they struggled to accept them. Both Owen and Frost wanted to create an anti-war image to oppose other poets who were portraying war as a fun game that everyone should join, like Jesse Pope in her poem “Who’s for the game”. Frost tackled the issue in a
Frost says in “Out, Out”

“No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.”

In “Out, Out” we are made to feel distant from the character, by saying “the one dead” Frost is making the character anonymous. The boy is obscured, and has lost his identity. This de-personalises the situation. In the final line it says “turning” this gives us the impression that people turned a blind eye to those who were suffering. This is a reference to the war and how people ignored the injured. Frost adopts the selfish attitude of the characters when he says “No more to build on” He has began to find their indifference acceptable. This suggests that the selfishness around the time of the war was like a common illness. The reaction of others is also seen in “Disabled” when Owen says “All of them touch him like some queer disease”. This shows us that he expected lots of people to respect him but people don’t go near him because they think he is dirty and infectious. “Like some queer disease is a simile that demonstrates that people are so disgusted by his injuries that they forget to treat him like a hero. “Them” refers to women, this makes him seem childlike. The word “disease” shows that the women find him repulsive, Frost displays the reaction of others through social standards and expectations whereas, Owen explains it as more as
Both poems are similar as they feature characters who have to deal with extreme pain and suffering. Both subjects injure physical pain after the injury differently, in “Out, Out” the boy’s life slowly slips away and his life and hopes for the future are cut short in the tragic circumstances whereas, in “Disabled” the man continues to exist craving the pain that he used to feel rather than the psychological pain he suffers now. “One time he liked a blood smear down his leg” this is a comparison between the past and present. The start of war was believed to be like a sports field however, overtime blood became like a tribal symbol. This represents that the veteran not only loss limbs on the battlefield but he also lost his past. The veteran in “Out, Out” had a bitter sweet end however, the veteran in “Disabled” has a bitter existence. Both Owen and Frost definitely succeeded in creating their anti-war image through the themes and poetic techniques they used