Range-Finding by Robert Frost

This is a sonnet that follows a rhyme scheme of abba abba ccad deffe so this is kind of deviating from the normal rhyme scheme that is present in other sonnets. However, the traditional useage fourteen lines is present but there is no identifiable rhyming couplet at the end of the poem.

This poem uses nature's point of view to describe the violence of war. This is what Frost usually does, he implements the use of nature to show a greater meaning with his work. This poem is about how war can effect everything and anything around it. It follows the "story" of one bullet that a soldier has fired in the act of Range-Finding (which means to adjust for the wind and distance and such). On it's travel through the air, the bullet manages to hit a flower, but the bird seems "indifferent" about it because "still the bird revisited her young" so she is more looking out for herself, which is kind of what happens in the midst of a war. Human instinct takes over, and survival of the fittest is the main operator when one is caught in a war. Even the butterfly is only concerned with finding a higher place to rest. The spider is upset that there is no fly in its web because of the way it "sullenly" withdraws back to its home.

Also, I believe the fact that Robert Frost had the bullet "destroy" two things considered naturally beautiful (spider webs and flowers) is his own way of showing how nothing good comes out of war and he demonstrates how brutally cold it is and its disregard for anything but death.