We all have to make choices every day. Some aren't that big of a deal—do you order the burger or the salad? Take the long way home or go the freeway? Watch Game of Thrones or the basketball game?
Others are a little more life-altering.
Frost isn't so much talking about weighing your options in "Mowing," but he is talking about how a choice has been made to pursue the truth, rather than sitting around and waiting for it to conveniently show itself. The narrator chooses hard work over easy living, finding the inspiration in everyday life instead of waiting for some profound moment of epiphany. Perhaps what's most important is that Frost communicates that there is a choice at all when it comes to poetry. He's showing us that poetry isn't just for nerds with elbow patches and stock options in independent publishers. Poetry is for everyone, and it can be found even in the simple act of mowing the grass. The choice is in seeing the poetry in everyday life and expressing it, or passing it over for loftier topics.
Questions About Choices
- What choices does the speaker make in this poem? What choices do we as readers make?
- How did Frost's choice to write about everyday life affect his career and his legacy as a poet?
Chew on This
If Frost had chosen to buckle under criticism of his subject matter and started writing about things considered more "high art," then he wouldn't be nearly as important a figure in American literature as he is.
Many farming families leave their children little choice when it comes to artistic aspirations, but Frost proves that you can be both a man of the earth and a man of art.