Situation: Man goes to mow grass, but it has already been mown. He feels lonely. He is then led to a tuft of flowers by a butterfly, where he can feel the presence of the man who mowed the grass. He concludes that no one is ever alone.
Symbols
The Butterfly- "And once I marked his flight go round and round, as where some flower lay withering on the ground" (18)
The Tuft of Flowers- At a tall tuft of flowers beside a brook, a leaping tongue of bloom the scythe had spared" (18)
Theme
Companionship
"'Men work together,' I told him from the heart, 'whether they work together or apart'" (19)
Organisation
21 heroic couplets that occasionally break iambic pentameter
Progression
"And I must be, as he had been,--alone, 'As all must be,' I said within my heart" (18)
"'Men work together...whether they work together or alone'"(19)
Atmosphere
Enlightening consolation
Pessimism to Optimism
Diction
Alone- "And I must be, as he had been--alone" (18)
"So that henceforth I worked no more alone" (19)
Heart- "I said within my heart" (18)
"I told him from my heart" (19)
Figurative Language
Frost personifies the scythe and the flowers
Imagery
Reader can hear the "wakening birds" and the "scythe whispering to the ground" and feel the dew and see the tuft of flowers.
