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Poet: Robert Frost
Poem: Design
Volume: A Further Range
Year: Published/Written in 1936
Poem of the Day:
Sep 14 2006
Comment 22 of 22, added on May 13th, 2008 at 8:51 PM.
children
This poem means innocence of a child. He wonders how things work and why things appears the way they do.
allen from Canada
Comment 21 of 22, added on February 7th, 2008 at 2:41 AM.
Honestly, I do not see "God's" design in this as some previous comments have mentioned. Based on the contextual evidence, or the literal lines on the poem, I have yet to see any biblical allusions aside from, perhaps, the title of "Design." It's almost stretching it to say that there is anything biblical in this poem when nothing of the sort is mentioned in the lines. Because of this, I'm not quite sure I can agree that Frost is criticizing God.
What I found was that the speaker of this poem was questioning "what design" would cause such events to happen. The heal-all, which is a flower that is /supposed/ to be blue, is white. Not only that, but it concealed a spider, which is usually thought of to be black or some other color. The spider, which seems to have evil connotations, is the color of purity and innocence: white. The fact that this discolored flower hid a strangely colored spider is strange enough. The fact that a white moth, thinking that it would be concealed by the whiteness of the heal-all, is killed by a spider already hidden in that flower is horribly ironic.
The speaker then questions what "design" there is that could cause all this to happen. The timing is almost too perfect for the heal-all to change its color into white, the spider to be white, and for a white moth to come over. The poem line "...witches' broth" connotes that he believes that some sort of otherworldy, dark magic could've made such events occur. But he is unsure as to what exactly this design is. He questions it because it is so out of place. In the ending lines "What but design of darkness to appall?- If design govern in a thing so small" he continues to question what design of darkness could work even in something so small like this event. What "design" made the flower white, "brought the kindred spider to that height," and "steered the white moth" there all at the same time? The speaker questions what dark design there is that could govern in something so small as well as in other things.
Anonymous
Comment 20 of 22, added on September 9th, 2007 at 9:52 PM.
It appears that Robert Frost is challenging the “argument from design” with respect to it’s use as proof of God’s existence. Frost seems to ask the question why a benevolent, loving god would design the world the way it is with the existence of evil and darkness, as represented by the spider’s mindless pursuit of the helpless moth. He sees this “designed” behavior as arising from an appalling darkness, if indeed design
does govern in a thing so small. By the same token, one might ask why we humans will bash a cow in the head with a maul in order to kill it and eat its delectable carcass! There is no denying that survival of the most fit is an operating principle in nature, and asking why God chose such an order is as hopeless as asking why there was such a thing as a singularity before space, matter and time came into being with the theoretical “Big Bang.” It appears that we poets will be asking unanswerable questions as long as there is life, and its beauty and enigma that inspires great poetry!
art chapman from United States
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Comments
This poem means innocence of a child. He wonders how things work and why things appears the way they do.
allen from Canada