Thoreau’s philosophy of work in frost’s “mowing”

Abstract

Eighteenth century German philosopher Friedrich Schlegel defined transcendental poetry as a “kind of poetry whose essence lies in the relationship between the ideal and real” (qtd in Dahlstrom 2013, 125). Though Schlegel lived before notable writers Thoreau and Frost, he was influenced by the same Kantian ideals that inspired the American transcendental movement. Henry David Thoreau lived an iconoclastic life of honest observations of both raw nature and “civilized” society, developing his philosophy regarding man’s relationship with the world, delicately balancing idealism in the context of his time. Among his publications is his perspective on work, expressed throughout Walden as well as specifically explicated in his lyceum lecture “Life Without Principle”presented in 1854 and published posthumously in 1863. This simultaneously idealistic and pragmatic viewpoint inspired many after him including the poet Robert Frost. In his poetry, Frost balances the “ideal and the real” called for by Schlegel, not simply glorifying what he sees but finding beauty in the ordinary, excitement in the mundane, meaning in the unremarkable. Specifically, Frost explores the deep meaning inherent in simple actions in his sonnet “Mowing”a poem that reflects the influence of Thoreau’s philosophy of work through its focus on solitude in nature, acceptance of reality, and satisfaction in labor. In the first lines of the poem, Frost describes a solitary farmer lost in thought, deeply engaged in his actions and aware of his surroundings like the ideal Thoreauvian poet. Interestingly, both Frost and Thoreau had farming experience; though the two men did not find financial success through farming, both had some of their best years consumed by this laborFrost during his influential years at Derry Farm and Thoreau when he lived at Walden Pond and “hoed beans” in near complete isolation (Thoreau 2012, 91). Likewise, the farmer in “Mowing” mows with “never a sound beside the wood but one” – his “long scythe whispering to the ground” (Frost 1-2). The solitary whisper https://doi.org/10.1080/00144940.2023.2252970