Design
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, 5
Like the ingredients of a witches’ broth—
A snowdrop 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?
10
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.
Making Meanings
Design
1. Did did the tone of the poem surprise you? Explain.
2. What similes occur in the octave (first eight lines) of this sonnet? How do
they affect the tone of the poem?
3. Identify the three “characters” of the poem, and tell what is happening to
each one. What color is each character? What justifies the poet’s description of
these things as “characters of death and blight”?
4. Look up the word character in a dictionary. Explain which definitions of the
word Frost might be applying in line 4. How does each definition affect the
meaning of the line?
5. Describe the rhyme scheme of the poem. In your view, what key words or
concepts do the limited rhyming sounds focus on?
6. In line 13, the poet answers his own questions with another question. Explain
how his final question answers the previous ones. How would you define a “design
of darkness”?
7. In line 14, Frost qualifies his answer with a reservation, beginning with a
crucial “If.” What is the reservation that remains in his mind?
8. How does the last line affect the whole tone and meaning of the poem?
9. How do you think a Puritan writer would have answered the questions
Frost asks in this poem? How do you think a rationalist, or deist, would answer
them?