The Tuft of Flowers

This is one of Frost’s pastoral poems, written in rhyming couplets, which set a simple, uncomplicated but musical tone. It is about a quiet and unexpected discovery of… Read More

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The Tuft of Flowers Lyrics

I went to turn the grass once after one
Who mowed it in the dew before the sun.

The dew was gone that made his blade so keen
Before I came to view the leveled scene.

I looked for him behind an isle of trees;
I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.

But he had gone his way, the grass all mown,
And I must be, as he had been,—alone,

As all must be,' I said within my heart,
Whether they work together or apart.'

But as I said it, swift there passed me by
On noiseless wing a bewildered butterfly,

Seeking with memories grown dim o'er night
Some resting flower of yesterday's delight.

And once I marked his flight go round and round,
As where some flower lay withering on the ground.

And then he flew as far as eye could see,
And then on tremulous wing came back to me.

I thought of questions that have no reply,
And would have turned to toss the grass to dry;

But he turned first, and led my eye to look
At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook,

A leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared
Beside a reedy brook the scythe had bared.

I left my place to know them by their name,
Finding them butterfly weed when I came.

The mower in the dew had loved them thus,
By leaving them to flourish, not for us,

Nor yet to draw one thought of ours to him.
But from sheer morning gladness at the brim.

The butterfly and I had lit upon,
Nevertheless, a message from the dawn,

That made me hear the wakening birds around,
And hear his long scythe whispering to the ground,

And feel a spirit kindred to my own;
So that henceforth I worked no more alone;

But glad with him, I worked as with his aid,
And weary, sought at noon with him the shade;

And dreaming, as it were, held brotherly speech
With one whose thought I had not hoped to reach.

Men work together,' I told him from the heart,
Whether they work together or apart.'

About

This is one of Frost’s pastoral poems, written in rhyming couplets, which set a simple, uncomplicated but musical tone. It is about a quiet and unexpected discovery of kindred spirit between two strangers, but joined in a work ethic linked closely by nature. They share a love and appreciation of Nature’s beauty and bounty. The speaker recognises their similarity and connectedness despite never having met each other. There is honesty in the hard labour of working within idyllic natural surrounding. Wee see a journey by the persona of the poem to discover whom it is who has mown the grass before sunrise, a mysterious and unseen labourer. The poem is about what can be learnt from this simple pastoral experience. There is both drama and serenity in this scene, with innocence and experience, romance and harshness all in this short poem. A discovery about human distance comes with his survey of the scene before him of the mown field after dawn. Wee see the loneliness as the as the way of things in the world, in the butterfly and the speaker both on their own looking for company. The butterfly’s journey leads to a sad discovery of only one dying flower left and almost seems to look to the speaker for help in its plight, showing a kindred spirit of man and nature. Almost both together they find/discover the last remaining flowers in the field that survived the brutal destruction of nature in man’s mowing of the grass. Was this an oversight or deliberate on the part of the mower, to leave the flowers to survive? With this the speaker finds a link with the mower, a common appreciation of nature, and companionship of work.