18 pages • 36 minutes read
Mowing
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Symbols & Motifs
Mowing
Mowing the grass is a modern chore, often associated with men mowing their suburban lawns. This shows pride of ownership and an adherence to the unspoken rules and order of civilization. The man is mowing circles around trees on a tree farm. The speaker implies that they live in a rural environment where a man living on many acres of land does not necessarily need to obey civilization’s rules. Yet he mows circles around the trees anyway, and the trees do not object. The speaker assumes that he must do it because he “likes” it. It is a form of caretaking and an opportunity to be in nature with the trees and grass. It may also represent a meditative practice for him, the way watching him cut the grass is a meditative practice for the speaker.
Circles
The speaker repeats the word circles several times. A circle is a pregnant symbol, a shape that denotes order. Mowing in circles creates a visible border around each tree, implying separation, ownership and civilization. Circling the trees is an act of caretaking, but it is also an act of ownership and surveyance. To encircle someone with your arms is endearing. To encircle an enemy is an act of aggression. In a spiritual sense, a circle represents life, which is cyclical. An image-tool that uses circles is a Mandala, which in Buddhism represents wholeness, and the regenerative nature of life. There’s also a sense of the human mind “going in circles”, hypnotically repeating ideas over and over. This has two opposite implications—an obsessive, anxiety-provoking repetition of thoughts, or the use of a calming mantra in meditation or meditative activities.
Grass
Limón only uses the word “grass” (Line 15) once, calling it “savage” (Line 15). This is a word full of connotations and denotations. The word “savage” means something that is uncivilized, untamed. To apply the word “savage” to grass is appropriate, because grass is an element of nature that grows without a decisive, visible order. But the word is also a little alarming because grass does not live up to the connotations of the word; it is not dangerous or threatening to human life. Using such an intense word to describe something so innocuous draws attention to itself. Perhaps the grass is a metaphor for anything that grows and cannot be controlled or can only be controlled with great effort. From an ecological perspective, there is nothing wrong or unnatural with grass growing as it would in nature. This suggests the word “savage” is an attribution humans give to the natural world because they are so invested in keeping things under control, like the man mowing the grass.
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By Ada Limón
