Robert Frost has been hailed as “the Farmer-Poet of America”. So for him, the act of mowing is intricately linked to his way of life. It is more than a mechanical routine for him. Though the scythe is a machine by itself, Robert Frost apostrophizes the same by attributing it with human-like qualities. At once it may refer to the practice of slavery where the slave was treated like a machine devoid of human emotions. Frost humanization of the scythe at once inverts the same and comes across as a satire on the system of slavery.
The Norton Anthology of American Literature” lists the poem penned in 1913 under the category of Nature Lyrics. The form of the poem comes across as a sonnet that combines features of the Petrarchan sonnet and Shakespearean sonnet, with the rhyme scheme: ABC ABD ECD GEH GH. The poem persistently exhibits the phenomenon of onomatopoeia where the sound echoes the sense. The internal rhymes and constant alliteration seems to bring out the very sounds of mowing.
On another level, the act of mowing by itself is an act of pruning, and may function as a metaphor for the practice of refinement. And the sign of sophistication as opposed to the Nature. Here the image of the ‘woods’ is placed side by side by the act of mowing. The image of ‘woods’ is a recurrent one in the poems of Robert Frost signifying ‘indecision’. The wood is characteristic of silence of Nature, and not the expression of human existence. Perhaps this is why the poems begins with the line:” There was never a sound beside the wood but one,/
And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground.”
It seems to be whispering because of the heat of the sun, the Sun being a potent and omnipresent symbol of Nature. The lack of sound makes the Sound more aware of itself and hence it whispers. Frost does not resort to fancy or imagination while dealing with Nature in his poems where it ushers one into a different world like the supernatural. Unlike Coleridge who made the supernatural natural, or Wordsworth who made the natural supernatural, Frost utilized Nature primarily as a metaphor to comment on the practicalities and realities of life. As echoed in his poem “Birches”, he stresses that while Idealization is Good, Reality is better:
Further, he does not believe in building castles in the air. The sign of fairies and elves are also a satire on the Romantic Imagination that incorrigibly lingered on the concept of fancy. He promotes a kind of philosophy that believes in ”reaping’ one’s own benefits.”As the proverbial saying goes:. As you shall sow, so shall you reap. One’s remuneration is based on how hard one works. Therefore the speaker does not aspire for Fairies (fays) or elves to bring in miracles. Only the Truth is primary; everything else is not even secondary, but supplementary to truth itself. The snake is a symbol of fallaciousness. Therefore Truth or hard work seems too scare the snake. away. Again, the green snake a sign of Nature is scared away by the sign of sophistication. The poet advises to only acknowledge Truth and make the most of life as it lasts. Even if it means dealing with the smaller things of life.
The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.
My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make.
Another interpretation is that the act of mowing may signify reverting to grass-root levels. That is ,for the farmer-poet Robert Frost he may like his old profession farming as opposed to intellectual enterprises .He may find joy in the little things of life and in mechanical pursuits like ‘mowing’ rather than philosophizing on larger-than- life things. Its ‘whispering’ is characteristic of its ‘low -profileness’. Its enigma lies it its subtlety; this is why the poet asserts :
What was it it whispered? I knew not well myself;
Critics have also discovered sexual connotations for the poem. The act of mowing thus transforms itself into something that goes beyond the mere sexual act itself. It must then be accompanied “with the earnest love.” The act of swinging back and forth adds to this interpretation. Further, in keeping with Freudian psychology, “feeble-pointed spikes of flowers” echoes Luce Irigaray’s assumptions on the woman’s ” multiple, diffuse, tactile” sexuality.The Lacanian concept of phallus as the king of the symbolic domain is sounded in the phrase ‘a bright green snake.’
The poet equates fact with fancy towards the end; for that would be the sweetest dream for him.That ‘truth ‘ is the primary criterion and foremost consideration is reiterated by Robert Frost even in the concluding lines of the poem:
“The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.”
Reference:
- www.brighthub.com/arts/books/articles/68026.aspx
- www.brighthub.com/arts/books/articles/108361.aspx
- www.brighthub.com/arts/books/articles/120866.aspx
