The Mowers
Philip-larkin
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The Mowers by Philip Larkin
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Philip-larkinAbout
The Mower by Philip Larkin is a poem about the unaware killing of a hedgehog. It is about a person who without noticing, killed another living thing, and mourned its death. It is symbolism for how sometimes we mow over others without realizing, and to quote the final stanza: we should be kind while...
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The Mowers Annotated
The mower stalled, twice; kneeling, I found
A hedgehog jammed up against the blades,
Killed. It had been in the long grass.
I had seen it before, and even fed it, once.
Now I had mauled its unobtrusive world
Unmendably. Burial was no help:
Next morning I got up and it did not.
The first day after a death, the new absence
Is always the same; we should be careful
Of each other, we should be kind
While there is still time.