Design

“Design” is a poem which at first seems one of Frost’s simpler works. Almost like a nursery rhyme, it describes a spider about to consume a moth and goes about its description with extreme imagery which seems to lack subtlety. However, when I delved into this poem it became apparent that it was one of Frost’s deeper works. Firstly, by its paradoxical nature it suggests to us that all events can be taken differently by different observers. A spider can be evil or “white” and a moth can have “dead wings” or be “innocent.” As such, Frost suggests that nearly anything can be ambivalent. Such a suggestion in this poem is almost hyperbolic in nature, as one usually would not think the unthinkable. For example, a heal-all is usually blue and not white. By surprising us, furthermore, Frost shows us to expect the unexpected.
Frost’s religious connotations bring the poem to a new level. The principle question Frost asks is “If design governs in a thing so small.” Such a question implores us to ask whether or not even such a seemingly miniscule event involving a flower and a moth are designed with a divine hand. The unexpected events which occur in the poem, such as the heal-all being white and the moth being in the wrong place at the wrong time seem to suggest that they are too much of a coincidence to be true. The religious question at the end of the poem seems a surprising twist, yet is supported by underlying religious imagery throughout the poem. For example, the spider – though it is consuming the moth – seems to be delivering a funeral for it (“morning right”).