Range-finding is a technique still used by the military today whereby attempts are made to fire large weapons accurately over long distances. It is a process of trial and error in which unintended areas are hit by test rounds. Eventually the various adjustments will hopefully result in an accurate shot which hits the intended target. Frost chooses such a title to call to the attention of his audience the fact that war is anything but perfect, involving many corrections and mistakes. The errors in war have serious consequences found even on the most minute levels of life.

One of the first creatures affected by the battle in the poem is a butterfly that has come to rest upon a flower is cut by a passing bullet. The diction surrounding this action is revealing of how Frost perceives nature. The flower is one of "rest"("Range", 7) and, as it fell, the butterfly "clung"("Range", 8). The words in lines seven and eight are characterized by innocence and a peacefulness that has been breached by man's violence. Frost then illustrates a vignette of a "pasture"("Range", 9) in the morning with "mullein stalks"("Range", 10) and a spider web with "silver dew"("Range", 11). This calm setting is also shattered by the battle as a "passing bullet [shakes the web] dry"("Range", 12). The "wet"("Range", 11) web represents a pure and innocent nature. The bullet has a different intended target, stressed by the word "passing"("Range", 12). This bullet unintentionally strips the web, representing nature, of it's wetness, or purity and innocence.

Frost wishes to communicate a meaning through his poetry, one that is not simple and superficial. He does so subtly through his diction, form, structure, rhyme scheme, and generic considerations. Upon reading "Range-Finding", one is left with conflicting signals and confusing messages. Frost uses his command of the language and style to create a meaning that is clear with respect to war. Frost uses nature as a vehicle to communicate the absurdity of war and its terrible consequences.

A second unknowing victim of a foreign war is a spider that is deceived by the passing bullet, thinking it to be a fly caught in its web. Frost anthropomorphizes the spider as it runs out to "greet"("Range", 13) the fly but, upon finding nothing, "sullenly"("Range", 14) withdraws. A spider does not greet flie

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1201
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)