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Analysis of the poem 'mowing' by robert frost
- 1. Introduction It is very well known that Robert Frost was one of those poets who wrote about the reality of life rather than blanket that reality into a scheme of sentences with words which made it appear as something that it truly wasn’t. Therefore, he wrote a lot about the working life of a middle-class man in England. He acquired this method to provoke his readers to ponder upon the philosophy of life, death, work, etc., instead of presenting them with a fantasy and embedding it with some kind of philosophical or mystic truth. In simpler words, he approached the world as it was. This perception of his inspired and was reflected in a lot of his poems. People were not accustomed to this kind of poetry in his time, therefore, even the best of critics had to scratch their heads in order to discern what Frost was meaning to establish or portray through his poems. However, as the years went by the world grew familiar with his writing style and concocted numerous allusions and comprehendables from his poems. This poem, ‘Mowing’ has been analyzed and regarded through various perspectives. What I am meaning to do in this paper is to analyze this very poem through the lens of ‘the work needed to write a poem’. This notion first struck me when I heard my professor discuss Robert Frost and state that we can deduce from his poems that he himself is ‘working’ to write a poem, which could be one of the many reasons for him to fixate upon the theme of ‘work’; physical work. Hence, the following paper will be discussed in the light of this notion. For this purpose, the paper has been divided into the following: 1. The poem ‘Mowing’ by Robert Frost. 2. Analysis of the poem under the prospect of ‘the work required to write a poem’.
- 2. ‘Mowing’ by Robert Frost: There was never a sound beside the wood but one, And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground. What was it it whispered? I knew not well myself; Perhaps it was something about the heat of the sun, Something, perhaps, about the lack of sound— And that was why it whispered and did not speak. It was no dream of the gift of idle hours, Or easy gold at the hand of fay or elf: Anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak To the earnest love that laid the swale in rows, Not without feeble-pointed spikes of flowers (Pale orchises), and scared a bright green snake. The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows. My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make. Analysis: “And that was my long scythe…” In the opening of this poem Frost first delivers the specifics of the tool being used for ‘work’ in his poem, stating that it is a ‘long scythe’. As mentioned above in the introductory paragraph, this paper will analyze the poem through the concept of how Robert Frost himself ‘works’ to write his poems – this poem. Therefore, in that context the ‘long scythe’ which he talks about, which is a tool for the boy’s work, could allude towards Frost’s tools for writing his poems. Moreover, his use of the word ‘long’ in order to describe the scythe may suggest to the readers that he’s alluding towards the idea that there exists numerous tools at the disposal of a poet which helps him to craft his poems, such as: the tool of imagination, or inspiration, or even a pen and pencil. The fact that he mentions ‘tools’ in almost all of his poems delineates its importance and how they are necessary for any sort of ‘work’ to be done. Hence, pointing towards the importance of the tools present in a poet’s arsenal and how they should always be taken care of and sharpened from time to time to contrive the best possible results. “…whispering to the ground, what was it is whispered? I knew not well myself;” Here, Frost mentions that the ‘long scythe’ – the tool for work – whispers to the ‘ground’. As readers we can deduce – as per this context – that the ground which Frost talks about here is the surface of the paper on which his tool – either a pen or pencil or his imagination – works. For the purpose of describing this action he uses the word ‘whispers’, personifying his tool for writing, attributing it to intellectual and human-like capabilities, using which it ‘whispers’ to the ground. Meaning that it writes or produces upon the ground the words that it wasn’t to imprint.
- 3. Another deduction could be that Frost imparts his feelings of oblivion to the readers; explaining that he does not know himself – while writing the poems – what reactions and critiques he would reap through his writings, or in what way would it impact the society in which he lives. Therefore, explaining the sentence: “I knew not well myself”. Likewise, it may also suggest the concept of confusion instigated within Frost himself; that he could not explain why he wrote poems, what provoked him to write poems, what inspired him to talk about the working life of the middle-class people, and that it was upon each individual reader to decipher that for themselves. “Perhaps it was something about the heat of the sun,” In this line, Frost paints a picture of a boy working very hard in a field with his long scythe in his hand swinging back and forth while sweat garnishes his face and wets his shirt. Frost conjures all of this in the minds of his readers by simply stating ‘the heat of the sun’, explaining that ‘working’ is hard, not easy, and that it requires a lot of strength and energy, only then does one yield the results that they strived for and hoped to accomplish. Thereby, penalizing the fact that writing poetry is hard work, one needs to ‘work’ for it in order to yield the best results. Much like the boy swings his scythe back and forth, similarly a poet has to swing his words back and forth until he/she can finally weave them into a sentence which brims and exudes of meaningful allusions and symbolisms. Moreover, much like how the boy works hard until sweat breaks out and drenches his body, likewise a poet has to work just that hard until sweat glistens onto his face due to mental exhaustion. “It was no dream of the gift of idle hours, or easy gold at the hand of fay or elf:” These lines further expound upon the concept that Frost is trying to impart to his readers in his poem – that writing poetry is hard work. He says that it is no ‘dream…of idle hours’ meaning that it is not as easy as people assume it to be. Inspiration does not hit a poet by sitting idly on his couch, words don’t align themselves properly into constructed sentences by their own; the entire ordeal takes as much time, energy and dedication as it takes to swing a scythe back and forth in order to plough the ground for harvesting. “The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.” Towards the end, Frost makes it apparent for all of his readers what the penultimate goal for each poem and poet is: ‘the fact’. A poet strives to deliver precisely that into his/her poem through his/her choice of words and sentence structure. Delivering those facts, may it be about life or death or anything besides it, it the ‘sweetest dream’ of all poets. Therefore, in this manner this poem ‘Mowing’ by Robert Frost explains how writing a poem is work in itself and how tedious and trying that work is; however, much more rewarding, as Robert Frost discovered in the following years of his life.