Design
By Robert Frost
Design
The poem is a sonnet, a 14 line poem
divided into two stanzas: an 8 line
octet and a 6 line concluding sestet.
In the octet, the poet lays out the
dramatic situation; he paints a
I found a dimpled spider, fat and white, picture in our minds of an unusual
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth situation he observed in nature.
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth--
Assorted characters of death and blight In the sestet, he comments on
Mixed ready to begin the morning right, the image, explaining its
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth-- significance.
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.
What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
What brought the kindred spider to that height,
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
What but design of darkness to appall?--
If design govern in a thing so small.
The connotation of the
words used to describe
the spider is unexpected:
dimpled, fat and white
make us think of babies,
not spiders
I found a dimpled spider,
fat and white,
Moths are
usually
white
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth--
The fact that it’s
white is out of
The heal-all is
the ordinary
usually blue and is
thought to be able to
heal a number of
maladies
The poet tells us what
to think of the three
items listed by labeling
them “assorted
characters of death
and blight.”
Assorted characters of
death and blight
Notice the
Mixed ready to begin the
word “right,” morning right,
which
sounds like
the word
“rite.”
Now the pun on
right/rite makes
sense.
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth--
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite.
The flower “like
a froth”
continues the
witches’ brew
image..
Whereas the octet of the sonnet sets
up the dramatic situation, the Note the
sestet, the last six lines, doesn’t emphasis on
explain the meaning of the opening white with its
picture, but rather asks a series of connotations of
questions. purity.
What had that flower to do with being white,
The wayside blue and innocent heal-all? There’s irony in
the name of the
flower—it
doesn’t “heal-
“Wayside” suggests something all.”
that’s found by the way, just “Innocent” is, of course,
scattered randomly by the side of another word wth a
the road. connotation of
goodness rather than
evil
The spider is “kindred,” to the
flower in color, certainly, but the
word suggests that we’re meant to
wonder how else.
The question implies
that the randomness
suggested by
“wayside” in the
previous line isn’t
What brought the kindred
random at all, that spider to that height,
there’s a force behind
these three unlikely
things coming
together.
Then steered the white
moth thither in the night?
The word “steered”
reinforces the sense
of a power behind
these actions.
Understanding Frost’s final point relies
on understanding the argument of design
proving God’s existence. We see the
same argument today as “intelligent
design,” the idea that the world is too
ordered and logical to have occurred
randomly, that there must be an intelligence
behind the design of it.
is even darker,
The second explanation But the apparent cruel randomness of
The poet offers two explanations. which is the idea that God isn’t dark, design calls into question
this particular
First, he wonders if the designer but rather indifferent, uninterested in of the designer. The
the nature
is dark, pulling these three things controlling “a thing so small” the suggestionhave been safe on
white moth should
together in some kind of that happen truly are
being that the bad thingsthe white flower, which shouldn’t have
malicious glee. Note the word just random.
been white anyway—it’s normally blue.
“appall.”
What but design of darkness to appall?—
If design govern in a thing so small.
Web Resources
http://s.spachman.tripod.com/Misc/design_comme
ntary04.htm
http://titan.iwu.edu/~wchapman/americanpoetryw
eb/frodesan.html