The Leisure of Chopping Wood

Alaina Frias 

Chopping wood is widely considered to be a strenuous chore, an activity associated with calloused hands, and gritty demeanors, an act of labor, not leisure. The poem “Two Tramps in Mudtime” by Robert Frost details his (possibly real or imaginary) experience of chopping wood for the sake of reflection, and then having to give up his mindfulness upon the arrival of a man who needs this work for pay. A well-rounded understanding of leisure is imperative to truly appreciate the issue Frost faces, an understanding explored in the essay, “Leisure the Basis of Culture,” by Josef Pieper. Written in post-WWII Germany this paper came about in a time that placed extreme emphasis on labor and heavily undervalued contemplation. This same mindset existed during the writing of Frost’s poem, amid the Great Depression; the context explains the severity of the unemployed worker’s financial situation which induced Frost to give up his avocation. In these times people were actively rebuilding their lives, so all efforts were focused on work, but that’s only half the battle. In order to create morally and intellectually stable existences, leisure is a primary tool, and both writings relate and reinforce each other by describing its importance, more specifically, discussing the nature of thought, the virtue of effort, and the functionality of reflection. 

Easily the most peculiar concept in the poem is how the laborious task of chopping wood is considered one of relaxation for Frost. The setting is an April day, a month where it isn’t imperative to split wood for heating or to store for the winter, even described by Frost as “the unimportant wood.” This statement clarifies the act as truly one of joy over need. However, the joy isn’t necessarily from the act itself, but more so in the reflective nature of its solidarity and connection with the outdoors. The poem is generally split into three parts, the first two stanzas describe his initial interaction with the workers and his experience in wood chopping, then stanzas 3-5 verge into observations of his surroundings, and finally in the third part, he yields to the worker’s whims. The entire middle portion of the poem serves as an example of the reflective nature of his task, a nature described by Pieper when he looks at the difference between ratio and intellectus. He defines ratio as “discursive thought,” and intellectus “refers to the ability of ‘simply looking’” or taking in knowledge from your surroundings without intellectual effort (Pieper 32). Both are imperative in the act of understanding, but intellectus is particularly key in leisure. Leisure is an inherently educational concept, its Latin translation, scola, is even the origin of the word school (Pieper 26). In essence, leisure is the act of knowing for the simple sake of knowing and not to fulfill a function. Stanzas 3-5 are a perfect example of the role of intellectus in leisure, they reveal Frost’s observations of his surroundings: from the sun’s warmth, to the wind’s chill, to the bluebird’s song, and the babbling brook. He spends three entire stanzas describing and meditating over the natural world around him, a knowledge that serves no real function to the situation he’s in, simply reflection for the sake of it, an inherent leisure. 

The process of intellectus Frost uses when contemplating the natural world is something that many today, especially the modern philosopher Kant would find useless and even “suspicious” (Pieper 35). The overemphasis on work in society, then and now, have created a real distrust of ease, and Kant in particular found “no real gain in knowledge from intellectual vision, because it is in the very nature of vision to be effortless” (Pieper 35) (The term vision meaning the same as intellectus.). This mindset entails high levels of stress as it entirely devalues forms of thinking that don’t require intense intellectual exercise. The simple act of intellectus that Frost participates in isn’t allotted value because he isn’t doing mental gymnastics to draw conclusions, he is simply observing his surroundings and reaching an understanding. The middle portion of the poem which reflects on the state of nature around him, reflects an understanding he gained from just existing within it, this form of knowing didn’t require intellectual work. Pieper, however, takes the opposite view from Kant and quotes theologist Thomas Aquinas who stated that “the essence of virtue consists more in the good than the difficult” (Pieper 37), and it is near impossible to argue that Frost’s conclusions about nature were anything opposite to good. Frost came to a poetic conclusion about the state of his surroundings and the lifeforms that inhabit it, while it may not serve a function, this knowledge has an obvious beauty and is inherently good. 

The inherent goodness of Frost’s conclusion is the antithesis of the worker’s mindset of functionality, an issue that shapes the conflict of him and his right to Frost’s task. The reader often finds themselves conflicted, understanding the need of the worker, but also in a position of pity for Frost and his loss. The distinction between Frost’s and the worker’s claim to the job is explained on page 41 of “Leisure the Basis of Culture” when Pieper discusses the difference between liberal arts and servile arts. Liberal arts are described as actions justified because of inherent goodness, while the servile arts are actions done with a secondary purpose. Many find the liberal arts unnecessary and believe, “nobody – whether he be ‘intellectual’ or ‘hand’ worker - nobody is granted a ‘free zone’ of intellectual activity, ‘free’ meaning not being subordinated to a duty to fill some function” (Pieper 40-41). This mindset likely also permeated the worker when he saw Frost chopping wood for leisure. He found no real importance in Frost’s reflection and therefore, “thought all chopping was theirs of right” (Frost) and felt justified in taking over the work for pay. To this worker, the act of chopping wood had no merit beyond monetary value. There was no innate love for the act or contemplative state it induced, simply necessity. This necessity rightfully takes precedence, a fact Frost agrees on when he describes his right as love and theirs as need, and states, “Theirs was the better right--agreed.” However, while need may outrank play, that doesn’t devalue the merit of leisure. Pieper understands the fact that “not everything that cannot exactly be categorized as useful is useless” (Pieper 44) and finds necessity in contemplation as a tool to perfect both the individual and the community (Pieper 45). When Frost describes spending time on the “unimportant wood,” he states that he’s “giving a loose” his soul. This is likely a phrase referring to the feeling of freedom and joy that comes from doing something he loves simply for the sake of doing it, a feeling that as Pieper suggests, works to perfect his entire state of being.

While written in different times and places both the poem, “Two Tramps in Mudtime” by Robert Frost and the essay, “Leisure the Basis of Culture” by Josef Pieper were brave antitheses to the cultures of excessive work they were born into. A culture that has marched forward into the modern day and has possibly grown even more significant. With the rise of technology, it is even harder to separate oneself from work as it is constantly at one’s fingertips, and when someone can find that time, they rarely choose to participate in leisure. Easy access to mindless entertainment is everywhere, and it often gets chosen before leisurely activities that require contemplation. The writings by Pieper and Frost continue to display great understandings of the merits of leisure that would do the modern world a lot of good. Concepts like the nature of thought, the virtue of effort, and the functionality of reflection are rarely even thought of in modern culture and the two writings do an astounding job of relating to and reinforcing these ideas between each other.

Work Cited

Frost, Robert, and Louis Untermeyer. Robert Frost’s Poems. 1970, ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA59606 257.

Pieper, Josef. Leisure, the Basis of Culture. 1998, ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA28641344.