The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.
Genuine
Yes. In A Boy’s Will (1913), ‘Mowing’, penultimate line (line 13), said by the poem’s first-person mower. These are the character’s words, not a statement in Frost’s own voice.
Checked against Robert Frost, ‘Mowing’, A Boy’s Will (1913; American edition, H. Holt and Company, 1915), published text at the Academy of American Poets, in a full-text transcription.
- Work
- A Boy’s Will, 1913
- Where
- ‘Mowing’, penultimate line (line 13)
- Source
- Robert Frost, ‘Mowing’, A Boy’s Will (1913; American edition, H. Holt and Company, 1915), published text at the Academy of American Poets
- Checked
- In a full-text transcription
Researched by AI. Entry updated 27 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
About this quote
The scene
A mower listens to the quiet sound of his scythe and wonders what it seems to be saying. He rejects fantasies of unearned reward and imagines instead a close connection between truthful experience, love of the work, and the rows he cuts. After this sentence, the poem returns to the scythe and the grass left to become hay.
What it means
For someone absorbed in real work, its actual making and result can be more satisfying than a fantasy of effortless reward. The paradox makes reality, rather than escape from it, the worker’s dream.
Often misread
Read as a blanket command to work harder, it loses the speaker’s attention to sound, flowers and the physical scene. The poem is about the imaginative satisfaction of particular work, not an employer’s demand for productivity.
Topics
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- And so rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life. J. K. Rowling
- I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. Martin Luther King Jr.
- I am the size of what I see, not the size of my height. Fernando Pessoa
- Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. (not found) Seneca the Younger
Cite it
Robert Frost, A Boy’s Will (1913), ‘Mowing’, penultimate line (line 13). Spoken by the poem’s first-person mower. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/the-fact-is-the-sweetest-dream-that-labor-knows/ (27 October 2026).
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Checked by people
People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.
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