Imagery and Personification in Robert Frost´s Poem Mowing

Robert Frost was a poet known for his writings that depicted the rural lifestyle of New England around the turn of the century. In this sonnet, Frost brings our interpretation and understanding of the life of a farmer working his field to a much deeper level. Frost’s Mowing, without following the style of a Petrarchan or Shakespearean sonnet, employs the figurative techniques of personification and imagery in order to break down a farmer’s monologue and tell us how working the field is a good, rewarding occupation, not just manual labor. The form of Mowing plays an important part in the development of the sonnet’s meaning. It is unusual as it is neither a Petrarchan nor a Shakespearean sonnet in form. Instead, it takes on qualities from both of the styles. The sonnet divides up into an octet and a sestet like a Petrarchan sonnet is supposed to, but at the same time it drives toward the final couplet in its last two lines like a Shakespearean sonnet would. In the octet, Frost tells us about the whispering sound that the scythe is making as it cuts the grass, but associates it with subjective ideas like â€Å"the heat of the sun† and â€Å"the lack of sound† out in the field. (Line 4,5) The sestet then tells us that the whispering is about the â€Å"the fact† of labor, and how it is the reason the farmer does his work, because it is something real that he can always claim as a good contribution he has made. (Line 13) The importance of the sonnet’s last two lines gives it a ShakespeareanShow MoreRelatedPoems of Robert Frost Essay1556 Words   |  7 PagesRobert Frost was an American poet, and playwright who became one of the leading pioneers in poetry in the late 1800’s into the 1900’s. Frost grew up in rural New England in the early twentieth century and experienced many hardships in his life including losing his father at the young age of eleven and losing two children at very young ages. He used hi s experiences of growing up in a rural area in most of his poems. Another major them in his poems are decision-making poems usually based off of his