"Design"
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Context
According to Wikipedia, Robert Frost is an American poet who often wrote about life in New England. This poem was found in a published collection called, A Further Range. I don't know if there is any connection to this poem and others in the collection.
Form
The poem is a sonnet. You can tell because of the rhyme scheme and the number of lines (14). I don't think it uses iambic pentameter in the same way a Shakesperean sonnet would. I think it's an Italian sonnet because it uses the A-B-B-A rhyme scheme. According to lecture, an Italian sonnet presents a problem or issue in the first two stanzas, and it then produces a resolution or response to the question in the last stanza. What is odd about this sonnet is that it presents a series of statements about what is happening on a white heal-all (is that a flower?) between a spider and a moth. The last stanza asks several questions about the design or nature of things instead of providing a possible answer. Is Frost doing this on purpose? Why?
(Jacob S) I think Frost does this to make the reader begin to question the status quo. Is white always associated with purity or can it have darker ties? Do murder and death come in standard forms, or are there different ways of presenting them?
(Andrew G): The speaker first says he "finds" or stumbles across the commonplace scene of a spider and a moth. I think as he stands watching the event he begins to wonder about the design or purpose of what's happening. To me it sounds like he considers whether God or some wickedness has caused the incident, and asks himself questions he cannot answer.
(Sammy R): I feel that Frost is asking several questions about the design of things on purpose. He is doing this to question death itself.
(Lindsey B): I think that Frost is making a contrast between life and death. He is making the contrast by including white (a sign of the beginning of life and purity) with death (the end of life) and spiders (which are signs of death).
(Sona S): I think that Frost is doing this on purpose to show the contrast between white and dark which can be interpretted as life and death or pure and unpure. This is represented by spider and the moth.
(Meghan G.): I think that Frost uses a sonnet to contrast the light and the dark and what we percieve those two things to be. The spider and the moth are obviously the main focus.
(Cathy T.): I think Frost does it on purpose to address the life of a spider and death with the moth. The whiteness is described as life and darkness occurs with death.
(Nicole T.): I think Frost is does it on purpose to show life and death through other objects (such ast the spider and moth).
Words and Phrases
I noticed that "white" is repeated in the first three lines, and this word rhymes with "blight" that ends the fourth line. I believe this evokes a sense a sterile, bleak, bleached out image. Normally, we would associate white with purity and cleanliness, instead of murder and death. I also noticed that "rigid satin cloth" reminds me of a wedding dress, which is also white.
(Jacob S) I agree that Frost is using white, a color that we usually associate with purity, to represent something darker. I think that the color white can have an almost eerie or ghostlike effect. It struck me as having this meaning when I read about the spider catching its prey and noticed the incorporation of words like night and darkness in the passage.
(Andrew G): White is most definitely not used in the traditional Western sense. It seems to me a lot more closely linked to death. Like Jacob said, it has a ghostlike quality about it. Maybe it represents the dress that the deceased wear at a wake (and the spider holding the body up, almost like an offering?).
(Sammy R): White is definitely a key word in this sonnet. I feel Frost is showing that even innocent, pure individuals (or insects) eventually die or it just has something to do with tying pureness and death together. Also with a "witches broth" as Frost uses, I picture the white steamy cauldron.
(Lindsey B): The use of the heal-all is very interesting to me. Turns out it is a woodland herb with yellow nodding flowers and little blue fruits. I find this interesting because of the death partaking on a lively plant. It presents and interesting comparison. I also find it intersting that the word white was used so many times and Frost didn't decide to use a white flower. With the amount that he used the word, I got the impression that the flower was white also. It is also interesting to me that he picked a yellow flower. Yellow makes me think of tainted white which leads me to think impure. It is interesting that an impure act of death appeared on the yellow flower that I would have thought to be white. Maybe the impure act led to the yellow flower?
(Sona S): In this sonnet, Frost uses 'white' as a key word which representes both pure and unpure or white and dark. I agree with others that Frost probably uses white as ghostlike quality and also indirectly metions that pureness can be easily turn into dark.
(Meghan G.) He uses white to describe the spider and really the world and that jumped out at me because he uses it in a very unconventional way. He uses it to describe death and magic, while we usually think of it as heavenly and pure. What also jumped out of me was the word blue in the second verse. He seems to be comparing the two.
(Cathy T.): The color white is used to show life and the innocence and normality of the spider. Frost mentions "a witches' broth," which could be a symbol of death. The color white and darkness are the main words that relate to life and death.
(Nicole T.): Frost uses white to show life and innocence, but also uses it to show death and dark. He uses that to show that everything in life changes, therefore white can go from good to bad without and thought.
Themes and Conclusions
Questions of purity, death, and intention are brought into play here. While death is a recurring theme in many of Frost's poems, I think it's interesting how he is questioning the design of nature and how this design is more dark and sinister even in its purity.
(Jacob S) I think Frost does a good job of making us question whether our general assocations (white and purity) are always correct. Things can often have many different meanings, and I think the color white and its connection with the spider and death in the passage are a good example of this.
(Andrew G): I think he suggests that it may be foolhardy to try and find some great significance in something so small, especially a naturally occurring thing. It's like the basic behavior of insects is standing in for devils of the "darkness" and their sinister work. I think he's just trying to admire a chance-sight. He also makes spider, moth, and heal-all (I'm pretty sure a flower) all the same color, as if to either say none are guilty or appearances can deceive.
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(Sammy R): Frost is making us think about death. By bringing into the sonnet purity and the possibility of the "rigid satin cloth" meaning a wedding dress, Frost could be playing out an individuals life. Such as being born pure, than getting married and getting older, which eventually leads to a natural death.
(Lindsey): Again, it seems apparent to me that Frost is comparing death and life. He is making a sharp comparison between symbols of life and symbols of death, combining them into one.
(Sona S): Frost gives us the bridge between pureness and darkness by giving us examples which can represent both life and death. He may be suggested that desing of nature is not always pure and white like others think.
(Casey H) I really am fascinated by the comparison between life and death. I feel the those are the 2 things that are absolutely certain in a persons life and hence a comparison of the two is quite valid.
(Meghan G.): The point that he makes is that maybe not everything we think of as pure really is. He makes us think about life and how deceiving it can be. He compares life and death and makes us think about all the symbols we had before and how they might not always mean the same thing.
(Cathy T.): Frost is trying to compare life and death with various symbols. He is trying to help the reader(s) realize that life occurs in the present time, but death will inevitably result in the end.
(Nicole T.): Frost is giving the readers a view of death. He's comparing life and death through different symbols and feelings and showing that although death is dark, it is inevitable.
Anything else?
Editors and Authors
"Design" by Robert Frost
I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth--
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth--
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.
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