The Full Text of “Design”
1I found a dimpled spider, fat and white,
2On a white heal-all, holding up a moth
3Like a white piece of rigid satin cloth—
4Assorted characters of death and blight
5Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
6Like the ingredients of a witches' broth—
7A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
8And dead wings carried like a paper kite.
9What had that flower to do with being white,
10The wayside blue and innocent heal-all?
11What brought the kindred spider to that height,
12Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
13What but design of darkness to appall?—
14If design govern in a thing so small.
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“Design” Introduction
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Robert Frost's "Design," first published in a 1922 anthology of American poetry, reflects on the argument that the complexity of the world proves that a supernatural creator (i.e., God) must have designed things. The speaker of stumbles across a strange sight one morning that, on one level, might indeed suggest a guiding hand bringing different elements of nature together: a white spider holding a dead white moth on top of a white flower. Finding this sight at once miraculous and grotesque, the speaker wonders what kind of higher power would "design" a world that contains such horror and suffering—if such a power exists at all. The poem was later included in Frost's Pulitzer-winning 1936 collection, A Further Range.
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“Design” Summary
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I came across a bloated, white, dimpled spider, resting on a white heal-all flower. The spider held a white moth above itself, as though it were a piece of stiff, satin cloth. These various figures of death and destruction seemed poised to act with purpose this morning. They were like the ingredients being stirred up in a witches' brew: a snow-white spider, a flower that looked like foam, and the fragile wings of the dead moth being carried by the spider as though they were a kite.
Why on earth was that innocent little flower white, when heal-all flowers are supposed to be blue? What prompted the spider to climb up onto the heal-all, as though in cahoots with it, and then drove the moth right by them during the night? Whatever designed this scene must have been trying to to frighten those who saw it—that is, if there is any design behind such trivial things.
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“Design” Themes
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The Role and Existence of God
Robert Frost's "Design" describes a white spider on a white flower holding a dead white moth (its next meal). Musing on who or what brought these three "characters" together in this gruesome scene, the speaker wonders whether life is brutally random or if there’s a higher power with an intelligent “design” for the universe pulling the strings. The poem ultimately implies that the existence of such a power (i.e., God) isn’t necessarily any more comforting than the idea that people are all alone; on the contrary, such a "designer" must have a twisted taste for darkness and evil.
On the one hand, the sight of these three white figures might mean that the world is the product of intelligent design—that all of nature’s complex parts have been finely tuned by an outside force into one miraculous system. The speaker wonders if something or someone “steered” the moth to the flower at the exact moment the spider was on top of it and ready to pounce. Other elements of the scene also might suggest that it's more than mere coincidence: “heal-all” flowers are usually blue, for example, but this one is white, just like the spider and moth atop it.
That the spider, moth, and flower are all white in color might also symbolically link these creatures with purity and divinity. Perhaps, then, the white scene is meant to be a sign of God's hand in guiding the world.
But the scene is also brutal: a creature is being eaten, after all! To the speaker, there's thus something unnerving and grotesque about all this whiteness because it's so clearly tied to suffering and destruction; it evokes not heavenly purity and divine love, but deathly pallor. These "characters," the speaker continues, are more like the "ingredients" in a creepy witches' potion than proof of God's love for creation.
If a higher power did design this ugly scene, the speaker concludes, then this power might actually be pretty malevolent! The speaker calls this a "design of darkness" and suggests that this sight was placed before the speaker with the express purpose of making them feel "appall[ed]." The poem thus proposes that the designer of the universe is more like a malevolent trickster than a loving father. The idea of a higher power being in control is thus more unnerving than comforting, the speaker implies, because such a power must have intentionally designed suffering, cruelty, and death.
In the end, however, the poem questions whether God exists at all: the speaker wonders if there really is any sort of design to a "thing so small" as this creepy little interaction between a spider, moth, and flower. In other words, the speaker wonders if life itself is too "small" and unimportant to warrant the hand of a designer in the first place.
- See where this theme is active in the poem.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Design”
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Lines 1-3
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—The poem begins with the speaker coming across a strange sight. First, there's a spider. Nothing unusual there, except that this spider is "dimpled" (meaning it has little indentations in its body) and fat. Such adjectives are usually used when talking about human beings, and their use here might make this spider seem a little cartoonish.
The consonance of "found a dimpled spider"—with all those bloated /d/ sounds in particular—seems to evoke the spider's rotund appearance. Notice, too, how that caesura between "spider" and "fat," makes the line feel almost like it's swaying, as though the spider is nearly too heavy for the flower it sits on.
This spider is also "white," a relatively unusual color for such a creature. This big, white spider doesn't seem all that odd, however, until readers get to the next two lines: the spider is resting on a "white heal-all" (a small flower, which is normally blue), and it's holding onto a white (presumably dead) moth—it's next meal!
The spider might now seem grotesque and gluttonous rather than merely odd. And the fact that there are three white creatures together makes the scene all the more surreal. The speaker repeats the word "white" three times in three lines, in fact, emphasizing just how wild of a coincidence this is (note that this kind of repetition is called diacope).
The white moth, meanwhile, is stiff with death, like a "piece of rigid satin cloth." This simile makes it seem as though the spider is inspecting the moth for quality, admiring its deadly handiwork while remaining callously indifferent to the life it has just taken.
The flower's name thus becomes rather ironic: heal-alls have long been utilized for their supposed medicinal properties, and their name itself suggests positivity, good health, and the wonder of nature. The color white also often symbolizes purity, holiness, innocence, and so forth. There's a dawning tension, then, between the connotations this white scene might evoke and what is actually being described.
Finally, note the meter of these lines: Frost is using something called iambic pentameter, which means that there are five iambs per line. An iamb is a poetic foot that follows an unstressed-stressed syllable pattern. Here's the meter of line 1 as an example:
I found | a dimp- | led spi- | der, fat | and white,
This bouncy da-DUM pattern makes the lines feel bouncy and musical. The meter, like the whiteness of the scene, is perhaps deceptively simple and upbeat.
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Lines 4-6
Assorted characters of death and blight
Mixed ready to begin the morning right,
Like the ingredients of a witches' broth—
Unlock all 261 words of this analysis of Lines 4-6 of “Design,” and get the Line-by-Line Analysis for every poem we cover.
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Lines 7-8
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
And dead wings carried like a paper kite. -
Lines 9-12
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? -
Lines 13-14
What but design of darkness to appall?—
If design govern in a thing so small.
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“Design” Symbols
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Whiteness
"Design" takes some familiar symbolism and flips it on its head. The color white typically represents purity, innocence, and truth. It's a color often linked with goodness and with God, while its opposite—darkness—is linked with evil.
Yet when the speaker finds a white spider on top of a white flower, holding a dead white moth, this sight offers none of the warm, fuzzy feelings associated with the symbolism mentioned above. In this scene, whiteness seems more linked with the pallor of death than it does with any sort of heavenly truth and light. To the speaker, there's nothing innocent about what's going on; on the contrary, it's a "design of darkness"—something evil. This whiteness thus feels like the kind of cosmic joke: if God designed the world—and, it follows, designed the scene before the speaker—then that means God took a color people link with goodness and used it "to appall," or disgust. Whiteness, here, suggests God's cruelty, not God's love.
- See where this symbol appears in the poem.
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“Design” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
The poem features a few examples of alliteration, which mostly help call attention to its imagery. Listen, for example, to the alliteration in line 7 as the speaker describes the "ingredients of a witches' broth":
A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
These hushed sounds lend subtle beauty to the line; that "snow-drop spider" might seem lovely rather than grotesque. And yet, this line is describing something pretty spooky: a ghostly white spider and a flower that resembles the foam atop a witches' brew. The clear alliteration might even make readers think of a spell or chant.
Another interesting example of alliteration comes in line 12:
Then steered the white moth thither in the night?
All these breathy /th/ sounds make the line feel delicate, perhaps like the little moth itself as it's guided toward its doom by some unhand force.
By contrast, the heaving /d/ sounds of "design of darkness" in the poem's second-to-last line adds weight and power to the description of God's seemingly evil blueprint for the world. And in the final line, the quick, whispery /s/ of "so small" ends the poem on a quiet note—one perhaps reflective of how "small" and insignificant the scene might really be.
- See where this poetic device appears in the poem.
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Consonance
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End-Stopped Line
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Imagery
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Diacope
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Rhetorical Question
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Simile
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“Design” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Dimpled
- Heal-all
- Rigid
- Satin
- Assorted
- Blight
- Broth
- Snow-drop
- Froth
- Wayside
- Kindred
- Steered
- Thither
- Appall
Dimpled-
With small indentations.
- See where this vocabulary word appears in the poem.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Design”
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Form
"Design" is a sonnet. Its 14 lines can be broken down into an opening eight-line stanza called an octave and a six-line stanza called a sestet.
There are a few different kinds of sonnets. The first half of "Design" sticks to the Petrarchan variety, meaning its octave can be broken into two quatrains (four-line stanzas), each of which follows an ABBA ABBA rhyme scheme. In a Petrarchan sonnet, the sestet also serves as a kind of answer to a question or issue presented in the octave, almost like a joke with its set-up and punchline. The moment when the poem shifts direction is called the turn or volta, it comes right on cue here in line 9 ("What had that flower to do with being white").
The sonnet is one of the most famous poetic forms in English (and other) languages. Particularly in its early days, the sonnet was often a kind of arena in which poets could prove their poetic skill. There's thus a strong association between the form in general and the intelligent designer behind it (the poet). By choosing the sonnet form, Frost situates his "Design" in a long history of poetic design.
But this poem also disrupts the normal conventions of Petrarchan sonnet in some important ways. For one thing, the speaker doesn't provide any real answers in the sestet; instead, the speaker shifts to more uncertain ground, posing a series of questions that probe at the nature of existence itself.
The sestet's rhyme scheme also breaks with that of a Petrarchan sonnet. It ends with a rhyming couplet—something that happens in a Shakespearean sonnet, not a Petrarchan one:
What but design of darkness to appall?—
If design govern in a thing so small.In Shakespearean sonnets, the couplet also marks the poem's volta. And there is indeed essentially a second volta here: the speaker declares that any grand designer of the universe must be malevolent, before ending things with the possibility that there's no designer at all. In this way, the speaker turns the poem on its head in the final moments, leaving the reader with no easy answers.
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Meter
"Design" uses the standard meter for sonnets: iambic pentameter. This means that each line has five iambs, poetic units (a.k.a. feet) that follow an unstressed-stressed syllabic pattern (da-DUM). The first line provides a good example of this meter in action:
I found | a dimp- | led spid- | er, fat | and white,
This steady meter gives the poem a sense of stability and control. In a way, it reflects Frost's own "Design" for his poem.
There are some variations in the poem's meter, however, which keep things from feeling too stiff and also call attention to important moments. For example, check out the extra stresses in line 8:
And dead | wings car- | ried like | a pa- | per kite.
Read most naturally, this line includes a spondee (two stresses in a row, DUM-DUM) on the second foot. This seems appropriate, given that "dead," wings," and "carried" all feel like weighty words.
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Rhyme Scheme
The poem features the following rhyme scheme:
ABBAABBA ACAACC
The first eight lines here, a.k.a. the octave, follow the expected rhyme scheme of a Petrarchan sonnet: two B rhymes sandwiched between two A rhymes. Rhyme works like fancy patterns on a piece of cloth, providing clear evidence that a master designer is at work (in this case, Robert Frost!).
The sestet uses a unique rhyme pattern, however, that veers off from any of those usually used in Petrarchan sonnets. For one thing, the poet returns to that same A rhyme sound from the octave ("white"/"height"/"night"), when typically a sonnet would introduce new sounds in its final six lines. This might subtly reflect the fact that the sestet here isn't actually providing any resolution to the octave; it's just continuing the speaker's line of thought and posing questions. The continued A rhyme sound makes the whole poem feel intricately interwoven as well.
The poem then ends with a rhyming couplet ("appall"/"small"), which makes it sound more like a Shakespearean sonnet. That final rhyme calls attention to the poem's closing argument: that any "design" must exist to "appall," if such a design exists at all.
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“Design” Speaker
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"Design" uses a first-person speaker, though readers don't learn anything about this person's identity. That makes sense, given that the poem isn't really about the speaker; instead, the speaker here is a lens through which the reader gets to experience the strange sight of the white spider on the white flower holding the white moth. The speaker is clearly disturbed by this scene, using vivid imagery that makes it seem grotesque and wondering what kind of God would "design" it.
It's fair (though not necessary) to take the speaker of "Design" as representing the perspective of Robert Frost himself, as the poet wrote often about his experiences with the natural world.
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“Design” Setting
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"Design" takes place on a morning out in nature, perhaps in a forest or field of some sort (or, given the reference to the "wayside" heal-all, at the side of a rural road). This isn't the green, luscious natural world that poetry often depicts, however; instead, it's a place seemingly drained of life and color, where a "fat" white spider sits atop an unnaturally white heal-all flower while holding onto a white moth.
Spiders and heal-alls aren't typically white, so this sight, in one interpretation, might point to the existence of a divine creator: an intelligent designer who brought these three white figures into this creepy tableau. But if that's the case, the speaker reasons, then it suggests this God-like figure has a pretty twisted sense of humor. In other words, if this scene points to there being a "design" to the world, it must be a "design of darkness" meant to disgust and disturb. The natural world thus becomes a reason to doubt the existence of a benevolent God, rather than proof of such a god.
On the other hand, the speaker notes in the poem's final line, it might not be evidence of a grand "design" at all; perhaps the scene is just a coincidence.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Design”
Literary Context
"Design" first appeared in print in 1922 and was later collected in Robert Frost's 1936 book of poems, A Further Range. Frost (1874-1963) remains one of the most celebrated poets in the English language. He was popular both critically and commercially during his lifetime and won numerous prestigious prizes, including a Congressional Gold Medal and four Pulitzers.
Though loved and admired by a wide range of poets (including Modernists like T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound), Frost never really belonged to a specific poetic group or movement. He wrote during the heyday of Modernist poetry, yet his own work was pretty traditional in terms of form. He regularly turned to steady meters and rhyme schemes in his poems, for example, famously likening free verse (which Modernism helped popularize) to "playing tennis without a net." At the same time, he favored accessible, down-to-earth language.
Frost wrote often about the mystery of existence and the relationship between humanity and nature, two themes on display in "Design." Many of Frost's most famous poems similarly drill into existential questions about what it means to be alive; "Out, Out—," for example, reflects on the unnecessary death of a young boy, while "The Road Not Taken" questions the agency people have (or don't have) over their own lives.
Historical Context
Frost wrote an early draft of "Design" in 1912 (then titled "In White") and revised the poem in 1922, not long after the First World War (which lasted from 1914 to 1918). Thanks to advances in modern technology (including more sophisticated and significantly more deadly weapons), WWI resulted in death and suffering on a previously unfathomable scale. For many, the war cast doubt on the very idea of civilization and progress while also destroying their religious faith; at the same time, some increasingly turned to religion for comfort.
Frost, who was too old to fight in WWI, purchased a farm in New Hampshire in 1915. He'd previously spent nine years working on a farm in Derry N.H., purchased by his grandfather, and these experiences in rural New England form the backdrop of much of Frost's most famous poetry. Though professionally successful in the period between the two world wars, Frost's personal life was blighted by tragedy not long before this poem was included in his 1936 collection. His sister, Jeanie, died after battling mental illness, and his daughter, Marjorie, passed away in 1934 at just 29. Frost had previously lost two other children as well. It's possible that events like these inform the poem's skepticism that a kind, loving God designed the world.
Of course, this poem is commenting on a very old theological concept: the "argument from design," or the idea that the complexity of the world proves the existence of a divine creator. This concept stretches back centuries, having been popularized by the medieval theologian St. Thomas Aquinas and further developed by the 18th-century priest William Paley. In the 1990s, the idea was essentially rebranded as "intelligent design."
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More “Design” Resources
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External Resources
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A Further Range — Check out the full collection in which "Design" appears.
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The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of "Design."
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Frost and Religion — An interesting article exploring attitudes towards God in Frost's poetry.
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Frost at Home — Watch a 1952 interview with the poet, filmed at his house in Vermont.
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Frost's Biography and More Poems — Learn more about Frost's life and work via the Poetry Foundation.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Robert Frost
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