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Design Explication Of Robert Frost

Decent Essays

Professor Underwood
English 1102
4 December 2015
Design Explication Robert Frost takes an interesting approach in his short poem entitled, "Design." In the poem, Frost questions if there is a designer of life or if things just occur randomly. Frost believes that if there is indeed a designer of life, the designer produces both evil and good. Moreover, Frost considers that perhaps good could actually be evil if one is looking close enough, if so, the nature of the designer in the poem is contradictory. Frost 's "Design" mastery in the poem is that its meaning is enhanced by its form, rhyme, and its imagery and connotations.
Despite being considered a sonnet, “Design” does not express the true nature of a sonnet’s meaning. In contrast of pleasing or inspiring, it is unexpectedly doubtful. Frost made changes to the typical sonnet form. He made his own design. Primarily, the usual pattern of a question in the octave followed by an answer in the sestet, is reversed in this situation. The octave in the poem is an observation, and the successive sestet is a question. Additionally, Frost made changes to the usual rhyme scheme of a sonnet; the "cdecde" pattern in the sestet has been changed to "acaacc.” The reader could possibly be caught off guard by the unexpected differences. Frost engages poetic structure to increase the irony of his poem, and interchanges between two different tones. Shock and appreciative are mixed together with lyrical lines. The tone shifts from rapid and

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