Mending wall Robert FrostSome...
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January 09, 2021
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Mending wall
Robert Frost
Something there is that doesn‘t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing: 5
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a
stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of
hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I
mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them
made, 10
But at spring mending-time we find them
there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go. 15
To each the boulders that have fallen to
each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly
balls
We have to use a spell to make them
balance:
―Stay where you are until our backs are turned!‖ We wear our fingers rough with handling them. 20 Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across 25 And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. He only says, ―Good fences make good neighbors.‖ Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonderIf I could put a notion in his head:
―Why do they make good neighbors? Isn‘t it 30 Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I‘d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense. Something there is that doesn‘t love a wall, 35 That wants it down.‖ I could say ―Elves‖ to him, But it‘s not elves exactly, and I‘d rather He said it for himself. I see him there, Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. 40 He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father‘s saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, ―Good fences make good neighbors.‖ 45 48 EN1215_British & American Literature_content credits to original creators_Uploaded by Nisal Wanigasuriaya Poet One of the most celebrated poets in America, Robert Frost was an author of searching and often dark meditations on universal themes and a quintessentially modern poet in his adherence to language as it is actually spoken, in the psychological complexity of his portraits, and in the degree to which his work is infused with layers of ambiguity and irony. Summary 'Mending Wall' is loosely written in blank verse, meaning unrhymed lines consisting of five iambs in each line.Iambs are metrical feet that have two syllables, one unstressed syllable followed by one stressed syllable, as in 'belong,' or 'along,' or 'away.' As we'll see, in addition to creating an overall sound and feeling to the poem, the blank verse form also contributes to the poem's meaning. 'Mending Wall' opens with a speaker explaining that his property is separated from his neighbor's by a stone wall that is constantly being dismantled by 'something that doesn't love a wall.' Just what this something is that disrupts the wall remains somewhat vague, but the speaker illustrates that it cannot be animals or hunters. The task of mending the wall is difficult, and because nothing in their respective properties poses a threat to the others, the speaker tries to convince his neighbor that there is no need to continue to fix the wall. The neighbor, however, is unconvinced by the speaker's reasoning and in response, simply utters his father's saying that 'good fences make good neighbors.' The speaker again presses his neighbor, pointing out that rational people should know exactly what they are keeping in and keeping out when they build a wall, yet again the neighbor resists the speaker's reasoning. The poem ultimately ends symbolically with the neighbor's repetition of the adage that 'good fences make good neighbors.' The poem The poem Mending Wall is rich with subtle textures, which we will explore further here. The basic theme of the poem is about the necessity of boundaries and the deceptive arguments employed to destroy them. very year, two neighbors meet to repair the stone wall that divides their property. The narrator is skeptical of this tradition, unable to understand the need for a wall when there is no livestock to be contained on the property, only apples and pine trees. He does not believe that a wall should exist simply for the sake of existing. Moreover, he cannot help but notice that the natural world seems to dislike the wall as much as he does: mysterious gaps appear, boulders fall for no reason. The neighbor, on the other hand, asserts that the wall is crucial to maintaining their relationship, asserting, ―Good fences make good neighbors.‖ Over the course of the mending, the narrator attempts to convince his neighbor otherwise and accuses him of being old-fashioned for maintaining the tradition so strictly. No matter what the narrator says, though, the neighbor stands his ground, repeating only: ―Good fences make good neighbors.‖ Analysis This poem is the first work in Frost's second book of poetry, ―North of Boston,‖ which was published upon his return from England in 1915. While living in England with his family, Frost was exceptionally homesick for the farm in New Hampshire where he had lived with his wife from 1900 to 1909. Despite the eventual failure of the farm, Frost associated his time in New Hampshire with a peaceful, rural sensibility that he instilled in the majority of his subsequent poems. ―Mending Wall‖ is autobiographical on an even more specific level: a French-Canadian named Napoleon Guay had been Frost‘s neighbor in New Hampshire, and the two had often walked along their property line and repaired the wall that separated their land. Ironically, the most famous line of the poem (―Good fences make good neighbors‖) was not invented by Frost himself, but was rather a phrase that Guay frequently declared to Frost during their walks. This particular adage was a popular colonial proverb in the middle of the 17th century, but variations of it also appeared in Norway (―There must be a fence between good neighbors‖), Germany (―Between neighbor‘s gardens a fence is good‖), Japan (―Build a fence even between intimate friends‖), and even India (―Love your neighbor, but do not throw down the dividing wall‖). 49 EN1215_British & American Literature_content credits to original creators_Uploaded by Nisal Wanigasuriaya In terms of form, ―Mending Wall‖ is not structured with stanzas; it is a simple forty-five lines of first-person narrative. Frost does maintain iambic stresses, but he is flexible with the form in order to maintain the conversational feel of the poem. He also shies away from any obvious rhyme patterns and instead relies upon the occasional internal rhyme and the use of assonance in certain ending terms (such as ―wall,‖ ―hill,‖ ―balls,‖ ―well‖). In the poem itself, Frost creates two distinct characters who have different ideas about what exactly makes a person a good neighbor. The narrator deplores his neighbor‘s preoccupation with repairing the wall; he views it as old-fashioned and even archaic. After all, he quips, his apples are not going to invade the property of his neighbor‘s pinecones. Moreover, within a land of such of such freedom and discovery, the narrator asks, are such borders necessary to maintain relationships between people? Despite the narrator‘s skeptical view of the wall, the neighbor maintains his seemingly ―old-fashioned‖ mentality, responding to each of the narrator‘s disgruntled questions and rationalizations with nothing more than the adage: ―Good fences make good neighbors.‖ As the narrator points out, the very act of mending the wall seems to be in opposition to nature. Every year, stones are dislodged and gaps suddenly appear, all without explanation. Every year, the two neighbors fill the gaps and replace the fallen boulders, only to have parts of the wall fall over again in the coming months. It seems as if nature is attempting to destroy the barriers that man has created on the land, even as man continues to repair the barriers, simply out of habit and tradition. Ironically, while the narrator seems to begrudge the annual repairing of the wall, Frost subtley points out that the narrator is actually more active than the neighbor. It is the narrator who selects the day for mending and informs his neighbor across the property. Moreover, the narrator himself walks along the wall at other points during the year in order to repair the damage that has been done by local hunters. Despite his skeptical attitude, it seems that the narrator is even more tied to the tradition of wall-mending than his neighbor. Perhaps his skeptical questions and quips can then be read as an attempt to justify his own behavior to himself. While he chooses to present himself as a modern man, far beyond old-fashioned traditions, the narrator is really no different from his neighbor: he too clings to the concept of property and division, of ownership and individuality. Ultimately, the presence of the wall between the properties does ensure a quality relationship between the two neighbors. By maintaining the division between the properties, the narrator and his neighbor areable to maintain their individuality and personal identity as farmers: one of apple trees, and one of pine trees. Moreover, the annual act of mending the wall also provides an opportunity for the two men to interact and communicate with each other, an event that might not otherwise occur in an isolated rural environment. The act of meeting to repair the wall allows the two men to develop their relationship and the overall community far more than if each maintained their isolation on separate properties. Themes The Theme of Isolation Robert Frost's "The Mending Wall" is a comment on the nature of our society. In this poem, Frost examines the way in which we interact with one another and how we function as a whole. For Frost, the world is often one of isolation. Man has difficulty communicating and relating to one another. As a result, we have a tendency to shut ourselves off from others. In the absence of effective communication, we play the foolish game of avoiding any meaningful contact with others in order to gain privacy. "The Mending Wall" describes two neighboring farmers who basically live in isolation, at least from one another. Frost's use of language reinforces the idea of isolation. When writing about the wall's annual collapse, Frost uses the word "gaps" to describe the holes in the wall. However, this could also stand for the "gaps" that the neighbors are placing between each other. "No one has seen them made or heard them made" but somehow the gaps naturally exist and are always found when the two get together.
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