Compared to Robert Frost’s “Out, Out,” I personally prefer the poem
mentioned in the footnotes, the words by William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which
is commonly titled as “Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.”
The monologue, or often titled as the aside, appears in William
Shakespeare’s tragedy, Macbeth, in Act V, scene V, which is almost at the end
of the play. Dubbed also a dramatic poetry, “Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and
Tomorrow” portrays Macbeth, after being informed of his lady’s death, being
aware of his imminent doom. In the pessimistic analogy between human life and
candlelight, the persona claims that our life is merely the preparation for
final death and we are nothing more than candles which begins and
ends both in darkness. Likewise, if life is a drama, with all the laughter and
tears, performed on stage, no players can stay on stage forever. Realizing
that his life is filled with meaningless and idiotic pursuit, Macbeth accuses
our lives of being cruel and deceitful with all the unpleasant images applied,
echoing probably, at the same time, the feeling of the readers.