In White: Frost’s Early Version of Design
In White: Frost’s Early Version of Design - form Summary
Sonnet of Questioning Design
This poem is a compact sonnet that uses the form’s concentrated argument to explore apparent cosmic design. Within the sonnet’s tight space Frost presents a disturbing little scene and then shifts into a sequence of probing questions about why such whiteness and violence co-occur. The formal compression—brief descriptive opening followed by interrogative lines and a final, echoing invocation of "Design"—forces the reader to weigh chance against intention. The sonnet’s closure is inconclusive, leaving the central question unresolved and emphasizing moral and metaphysical uncertainty.
Read Complete AnalysesA dented spider like a snow drop white On a white Heal-all, holding up a moth Like a white piece of lifeless satin cloth— Saw ever curious eye so strange a sight?— Portent in little, assorted death and blight Like the ingredients of a witches’ broth?— The beady spider, the flower like a froth, And the moth carried like a paper kite. What had that flower to do with being white, The blue prunella every child’s delight. What brought the kindred spider to that height? (Make we no thesis of the miller’s plight.) What but design of darkness and of night? Design, design! Do I use the word aright?
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