Mending Wall
From ZuluNotes - Free Leaving Cert Notes
| English Poem | |
| |
| Mending Wall | |
|---|---|
| Subject | English |
| Section | Poetry |
| Paper | 2 |
| Poet | Robert Frost |
| On syllabus | 2007, 2008 |
| Note | |
Contents |
The Poem
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 make gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
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
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbour 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.
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.
Oh, just another kind of out-door 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
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
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,
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.
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 neighbours."
Analysis
In this poem Frost speaks of calling on his neighbour to come and mend the wall again which divides their lands. He refers to it as "just another kind of outdoor game." This phrase reveals his real attitude towards the subject and of what little importance it is to him. His mockery of the wall mending is seen in the way he compares his neighbour to "an old stone savage" The neighbour is imprisoned by blind tradition, believing unquestionably in the maxim of his fathers - "good fences make good neighbours." It is the ignorant uncritical acceptance of this motto that Frost criticises, saying his neighbour "moves in darkness" and is unable to examine his own behaviour. Frost also mocks the wall mending as it serves no practical purpose "He is all pine and I am apple orchard."
Symbolism
Human Nature: Man places divisions and 'walls' between himself and his fellow man, many times unnecessarily and out of a false sense or need for security. Fros seems to smile at man's efforts for "positive results," but asks if boundaries and wall-mending is really the best way to achieve this.
Comparison to other poems
The case is put forth by Frost in this poem that many (if not most) divisions in society are unnecessary and only lead to suspicion and isolation. Frost yearns for fellowship, seeks connections and meaningful human contact. This theme also runs through "A Tuft of Flowers", in which Frost also expresses a desire or human fellowship. In reality however, it would seem that man fails to make these connections, creating and maintaining ("mending") barriers around himself and intensifying isolation. The mower in "A Tuft of Flowers" never meant for the beauty of the flowers to be appreciated by the poet, there is only an imagined "brotherly speech" between them. Similarly in this poem, the annual ceremony of mending is ironically done to keep "good communication" but ultimately keeps both men apart.
Video
Reading
Read by Robert Frost:
