The poem "Design" by Robert Frost is a sonnet written about man's relationship with nature. Frost deliberately uses the form of a sonnet, using the octave for a discussion and the sextet for questioning the fact that there is a force that controls our existence. There are natural characters and some degrees of irony also that give this poem a naturalistic feel.

Frost uses the style of a sonnet in "Design" to present a philosophical problem - who controls our destiny. The octave is a single, smooth flowing sentence full of description. We are introduced to three things the narrator happened upon one day. There is a scene of contradictory pictures. The color of the white heal--all, the white spider, and the white moth all suggest purity and innocence. These are the, as the speaker describes them, "characters of death and blight." The octave has a lighter tone...