Strange Desings

A detailed Summary of 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 then ends the octet with a two lined metaphor, "a snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth, / and dead wings carried like a paper kite"(7-8). The snow dropped spider is once again reaffirming the spider's color (white) and that colors connotation (pure innocence and virtue). This is to show the reader that even though the speaker was just describing the spider as evil, the question is not that cut and dry for evil and good intermix all the time. The frosty flower is a metaphor for two things. First the heal-all's color is brought back into play (white) for it's associative meaning (innocence). Even though the heal-all is violet-blue the term frothy makes the reader think white. Secondly, as opposed to just calling the flower white the speaker describes it as frothy to give the

image of foamy frost like the type that would cling to a beer can. The image of froth can also be seen as a blanket of froth (the way that froth blankets a beer can) on the flower to protect the innocent flower from the evil deeds being done on top of it. This metaphor thus shows how anything can have evil attached to it. Finally, the moth is described as having dead wings like a paper kite. Paper kites are inanimate and thus the wings would not move freely on their own. This principle also holds true for dead moths; since the moths are dead they cannot move their wings. This picture of the dead moth assures the reader some evil has taken place as the dead moth is awaiting what the spider has in store for him.

In the third line the poem sets up a simile of the moth dangling "like a white piece of rigid satin cloth". Once again the speaker is playing on our subconscious definition of the term white. 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. So our image is of the white innocent moth being like rigid satin. Now I'm no fashion expert, but it does seem like an oxymoron to have rigid satin, for satin is usually smooth. This oxymoron is probably there to show that the only way a moth could be hanging like a rigid piece of satin was if that moth was dead (for moth's wings could be seen as satin-esque and they would definitely be rigid were the moth already dead). So the dead moth is the innocent victim in this situation. Also moths are known to eat clothing like satin so that shows that even the innocent victim moth is a little bit evil. This example shows that the speaker wants the reader to know that

Some common words found in the essay are:
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,

Approximate Word count = 1700
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous