Strange Desings
In the poem "Design", by Robert Frost, the speaker tries to convey a message of some protruding evil that occurs in everyday life. The poem is designed to make the reader see different signs of small evils in our lives. Then the poet brings all the information about evil together to pose his master point, that there is an evil design that hangs in and is part of our everyday world. This evil deign is in everything we know, for it is a force of nature just like many other things. Just as every piece of matter is made up of atoms, our world and life are made up of parts of evil that sometimes manifest themselves for no reason accept that there is evil and that evil manifests itself during life. The speaker of this poem starts the poem out with a contrast. He is looking at a "dimpled spider, fat and white, on a white heal-all, holding up a moth"(1-2). First above all people usually expect spiders to be black, so the fact that the author describes a white spider is a bit peculiar. White usually stands for something virtuous and pure, not evil or deadly. But so far the image that we have is this white spider on the white heal-all plant. Then the speaker gives us another image on the heal-all, the dangling moth that is the
The speaker wants us to see that evil is everywhere in our world. Even though the heal-all is violet-blue the term frothy makes the reader think white. But what really is this situation? Is the spider killing the moth because the moth is threatening the spider's kingdom? No, as line five points out the spider is just killing the moth because then he will be able to begin the morning right. The frosty flower is a metaphor for two things. The speaker assigns the color white to the heal-all to show the reader the heal-all's true colors even in the sticky situation that it is in. Now I'm no fashion expert, but it does seem like an oxymoron to have rigid satin, for satin is usually smooth. Also moths are known to eat clothing like satin so that shows that even the innocent victim moth is a little bit evil. 2-to show the reader that things are not as they appear for the once friendly looking spider we now know to be deadly. The reason why the spider, moth, and flower were to meet for this dubious occasion is that there is evil in this world. By describing the moth as a piece of white, rigid satin cloth the speaker is playing on the point that people usually associate white with innocent. This simile is in the poem to describe the spiders breakfast less like my bowl of Wheaties and more like a witches broth containing frog's eyes, toad's toes and so on (although the speaker never actually says what's in the witches' brew we have a decent idea. Thus evil is a force we all must not only live with, but we must also be able to see and point out in all things including ourselves.
Common topics in this essay:
Robert Frost,
rigid satin,
spider moth,
assorted characters death,
design darkness,
assorted characters,
characters death,
spider evil,
white heal-all,
force nature,
dead moth,
evil design,
,
trying convey evil,
satin cloth speaker,
spider killing moth,
cloth speaker playing,
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Acceptance Essays
