Mowing changes a living field into ordered swathes and begins the work of making hay or controlling pasture. Traditionally performed with rhythmic scythe strokes, it later became increasingly mechanised. In poetry, mowing can evoke summer heat, fragrance, muscular labour, and the fleeting nature of growth. The sound of blade or machine creates strong sensory atmosphere, while the cut field may symbolise mortality and time. Yet mowing also prepares renewal, since grass often rises again after being cut.

Mowing is the cutting of grass or another low crop by scythe, mower, or machine. In haymaking it begins a sequence that includes drying, turning, forming windrows, and gathering. Poetry often draws upon the rhythm of scything, the scent of cut grass, and the sudden transformation of a living field. Mowing may symbolise mortality, but regrowth can suggest renewal. Related terms include scythe, hayfield, swathe, mower, grass, windrow, hay, and cutting.