Literary notes about mow (AI summary)
The term "mow" is employed in literature with a rich array of senses, ranging from the literal act of cutting down grass or hay to a metaphor for overwhelming force. In many texts, it denotes the agricultural process of gathering crops or maintaining fields—as when characters tend to a field or when a hay-mow is described as a rustic gathering place [1, 2, 3]. At the same time, authors use "mow" figuratively to evoke images of destruction or conquest; armies or obstacles are often "mowed down" in vivid battle scenes, emphasizing swift and decisive annihilation [4, 5, 6, 7]. Thus, whether portraying rural labor, communal traditions involving barley mows, or the forceful clearing away of opposition, the word enriches the narrative with layers of practical and metaphorical meaning [8, 9, 10].
- They had cut the whole of the big meadow, which had, in the years of serf labor, taken thirty scythes two days to mow.
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy - “The grass had grown very thickly there during the summer, and when autumn arrived no one had been there to mow it.
— from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Auguste Maquet - If you stay the night on land at Clifton, you cannot do better than put up at the “Barley Mow.”
— from Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) by Jerome K. Jerome - I mow down and overthrow all that stands in my way, and then cover the whole with my red mantle."
— from The Plowshare and the Sword: A Tale of Old Quebec by John Trevena - What valiant foemen, like to autumn's corn, Have we mow'd down in tops of all their pride!
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare - Twice were the Fifty-sixth surrounded by French cuirassiers, and twice did we mow them down by our fire.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte - But both seigneurs and bishops ordered their men-at-arms to mow down the 'villains' and 'clowns.'
— from The Blacksmith's Hammer; or, The Peasant Code: A Tale of the Grand Monarch by Eugène Sue - He was a young man then, busy and careful; he used to mow himself and catch fish and ride sixty miles on horseback.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Here’s a health, &c. We’ll drink it out of the pint, my brave boys, Here’s a health to the barley-mow!
— from Ancient Poems, Ballads, and Songs of the Peasantry of England - “Get along, get along!” said the old man, hurrying after him and easily overtaking him, “I’ll mow you down, look out!”
— from Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy
