The Mower
The Mower - meaning Summary
Small Act, Large Consequence
Larkin recounts a small accidental killing of a hedgehog by his mower and the immediate remorse it provokes. The poem moves from a concrete, painful scene to a moral reflection: a single careless act exposes human responsibility and the finality of death. The narrator equates the animal’s loss with everyday human absence and issues a quiet admonition to treat others with kindness before it is too late.
Read Complete AnalysesThe 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.
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