Alliteration is one of the more prominent poetic devices in "Out, Out." Despite the poem's lack of overall rhyme scheme or structured form, the frequency of repeated sounds makes it still feel lyrical.
Alliteration is first used as a way to bring the threatening noise of the buzz saw to life: "The buzz saw snarled." Immediately, there's a hissing, menacing quality present that suggests the potential violence of the saw. The alliteration continues thickly into line 2:
And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood,
There's something almost methodical to the placement of these sounds across the line, suggesting the repetitive process of using the saw to cut equal pieces of wood. Line 3 also uses alliteration, meaning that the first three lines all use the device—creating an atmosphere thick with melody within an otherwise distinctly unpoetic poem:
Sweet-scented stuff ...
These three /s/ sounds (also known as sibilance) convey the sweetness of the woody smell as the buzz saw makes its cuts.
Another key use of alliteration comes when the boy's hand meets the saw. Here, breathy /h/ sounds in line 17 are used to indicate shock and shortness of breath as the boy realizes what's happened:
He must have given the hand. However it was,
This same sound is then repeated in lines 20 and 21:
As he swung toward them holding up the hand
Half in appeal, but half as if to keep
Finally, it's important to note the alliteration that appears in line 32 (which also uses asyndeton):
Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it.
This line depicts the boy's fading heartbeat. Cleverly, the two /l/ sounds occur together to indicate when the boy's heart is—just about—still beating. But once the pulse has entirely gone, the /l/ sound disappears: "nothing!"