“Design” Introduction

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“Design” Summary

“Design” Themes

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  The Role and Existence of God

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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Design”

• 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—

  

  

  

  

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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—

  

  

  

  

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• Lines 7-8

  A snow-drop spider, a flower like a froth,
  And dead wings carried like a paper kite.

  

  

  

  

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• 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?

  

  

  

  

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• 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

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“Design” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

• Alliteration

  

  

  

  

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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

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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Design”

• Form

• Meter

• Rhyme Scheme

“Design” Speaker

“Design” Setting

Literary and Historical Context of “Design”

More “Design” Resources

• External Resources

  • A Further Range — Check out the full collection in which "Design" appears.

  • The Poem Out Loud — Listen to a reading of "Design."

  • Frost and Religion — An interesting article exploring attitudes towards God in Frost's poetry.

  • Frost at Home — Watch a 1952 interview with the poet, filmed at his house in Vermont.

  • Frost's Biography and More Poems — Learn more about Frost's life and work via the Poetry Foundation. 

• LitCharts on Other Poems by Robert Frost

  • Acquainted with the Night

  • After Apple-Picking

  • A Roadside Stand

  • Birches

  • Desert Places

  • Dust of Snow

  • Fire and Ice

  • Home Burial

  • Mending Wall

  • Mowing

  • My November Guest

  • Nothing Gold Can Stay

  • Out, Out—

  • Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

  • The Death of the Hired Man

  • The Oven Bird

  • The Road Not Taken

  • The Sound of the Trees

  • The Tuft of Flowers

  • The Wood-Pile