Plowmen

Plowmen - context Summary

Published in 1936 Collection

This short poem was published in Robert Frost's 1936 collection A Further Range. In a few lines it stages a bleak, ironic image — a plow used on snow — that gestures toward futility and mockery of agricultural labor under unworkable conditions. As context, its placement in Frost's mid-career volume suggests a continued engagement with rural imagery while expressing darker, more skeptical tones than his earlier pastoral work. The poem functions as a compact, gnomic remark about effort, cultivation, and absurdity.