Mowing Analysis

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 labour knows.

My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make.

.: :.

I do believe he is speaking of the rewards of work. To find the answers to whatever questions you may have, work is a necessity as it leads to eblightenment and knowledge. But also, I feel there is a pessimistic view associated with the poem. The scathe whispers the facts, the facts the speaker longs to know. But the scathe is too quiet for the speaker to hear and therefor he cannot know the truth. And he will never know what was said by the scathe, so he does not try to understand but rather moves on. He feels helpless, as if he'll never find an answer toquestion at hand.

| Posted on 2009-09-22 | by a guest

.: :.

I do believe he is speaking of the rewards of work. To find the answers to whatever questions you may have, work is a necessity as it leads to eblightenment and knowledge. But also, I feel there is a pessimistic view associated with the poem. The scathe whispers the facts, the facts the speaker longs to know. But the scathe is too quiet for the speaker to hear and therefor he cannot know the truth. And he will never know what was said by the scathe, so he does not try to understand but rather moves on. He feels helpless, as if he'll never find an answer toquestion at hand.

| Posted on 2009-09-22 | by a guest

.: :.

In summary, the speaker knows that the scythe is whispering while mowing but fails to understand what that whispering entails. Instead of looking for some strange answers, he dismisses any notion of supernatural or trancelike phenomenon, and simply concludes that the work of the scythe is satisfying and much more important, for it gets the job done by rendering the tall grass into small grass. In other words, the scythe must whisper in order to reduce the grass, meaning it must work. Failure to work would also be a failure to reduce the grass in size. This is where the metaphorical meaning of "Mowing" ties in with humanity, for humans must work to find evidence that leads to the whispers (i.e., whatever facts that one searches for).
In essence, if the work is absent, the facts can not be extracted. We must know by unearthing the information of something before we find out the facts. There can be no facts (concrete evidence) if no proof is located or ascertained, because "the fact is the sweetest dream that labors know" (line 13). Precisely, engaging in hard labor is the catalyst for finding the truth.
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| Posted on 2009-02-28 | by a guest

.: :.

I think he is talking about the beauty and meaning that come from working at something you love and about how it creates a break from the anxiety of the frightening and of the unknown. He is talking about poetry but it can be extended to any sort of work. The mowing is in rows like lines of poetry. The activity takes place beside the woods which seems to be a symbol in his poetry for the unknown, the afterlife, death, or depression (sometimes). The sound the scythe makes can stand for the sound of the poetry. What the scythe is saying is unknown to the speaker; in the same way, what the poem is saying is not always known to the poet as he is working. When the scythe could be whispering about the lack of sound, maybe the lack of sound could represent meaninglessness or the fear of it. I guess lazy fantasy can create meaning too but the poet considers that too weak compared to what he is doing. I wonder if scaring the bright green snake can mean the uncovering of surprising subconscious ideas and feelings while writing. The last line could mean that the poet writes and the work itself is sufficient and that the poem created is almost a secondary outcome and can be dealt with as a finished object later. The same way that the scythe mows the lawn and later somebody can come around and gather the clippings to make hay.

| Posted on 2009-02-17 | by a guest

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It's important to understand the relgious implications of the poem. Note the green snake in line 12 that is chased away by the scythe. If I were to attempt to sum up the poem in one sentence (let me emphasize that this is merely an attempt; there are enough subtleties in the poem to write an eight-page-long paper) I would say that the speaker (or Robert Frost, as it were) believes hard work wards off the temptation for sin.
--pk

| Posted on 2008-09-24 | by a guest

.: :.

Frost talks about how he wished his name was Robert Frosting.

| Posted on 2008-07-17 | by a guest

.: nina -> adelfa :.

Ostensibly the speaker muses about the sound a scythe makes mowing hay in a field by a forest and what this sound might signify. He rejects the idea that it speaks of something dreamlike or supernatural concluding that reality of the work itself is rewarding enough and the speaker need not call on fanciful invention.

| Posted on 2008-01-01 | by a guest

.: Mowing :.

Frost aligns himself with the tradition of Wordsworth, not only with his praise of nature but with his choice of language with ordinary men. The poem is made to seem natural like a conversation. Where there is mystery, the poet leaves the reader free to imagine along side the poet.

The long lines of the poem allows the poet to acquire the rhythm of meditation just as they capture the long slow movement of the 'scythe'. The poem is remarkable for what it does not say: Frost those though spell out the fact that this is a timeless labor.

| Posted on 2007-05-19 | by a guest

.: Mowing :.

Frost aligns himself with the tradition of Wordsworth, not only with his praise of nature but with his choice of language with ordinary men. The poem is made to seem natural like a conversation. Where there is mystery, the poet leaves the reader free to imagine along side the poet.

The long lines of the poem allows the poet to acquire the rhythm of meditation just as they capture the long slow movement of the 'scythe'. The poem is remarkable for what it does not say: Frost those though spell out the fact that this is a timeless labor.

| Posted on 2007-05-19 | by a guest