How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #1
The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood, (1-2)
Why is there an inversion here? Doesn't the saw "make" "stove-length sticks of wood" and "drop" "dust?" The inversion is meant to make you pause and consider the point of the activity—isn't cutting the wood just delaying the inevitable invasion of death?
Quote #2
And nothing happened: day was all but done. (9)
Does this mean that nothing happened out of the ordinary? Or is the production in the poem somehow implied to be futile? After all, the boy was chopping wood to survive. What is the speaker's perspective here? Is the finality so early in the poem meant to lull us into a false sense of security?
Quote #3
He must have given the hand. (17)
If you think about it, the saw is basically an instrument of the boy's work. So in giving his hand to the saw, what's happening? We get some confusing blending in this line, as if it's hard to tell the boy's intentions apart from the saw's intentions.
Quote #4
Since he was old enough to know, big boy
Doing a man's work, though a child at heart— (23-24)
Isn't everyone a kid at heart? Man's work is hard. Also, think about how this is meant to hit you as an emotional line—sniff.
Quote #5
No more to build on there. And they, since they
Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs. (33-34)
The boy is described here in terms of the work he did, and it seems that his value lay in his ability to do it. Jeez, this is tough stuff. Also, notice that the family is turning to "their affairs"—usually when someone dies, you take care of his or her affairs, rather than your own...