Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Mending Wall was the opening poem of the second poetry collection of Robert Frost titled North of Boston which was published in the year 1914. It is one of the most anthologized and analyzed poems in modern literature. Most of Frost’s poetry is principally about the rural life and landscape of New England. Mending Walls is a poem describing the discussion between two neighbors. The poet is a New England farmer who contacts his neighbor during the spring season to repair the stone wall between their farms. As they start mending the wall the poet and his neighbor engage in a discussion. The poet wonders if they need any such wall and asks "where it is we do not need the wall"? The poet mentions that nature doesn’t like the wall. The poet is of the view that they don’t need a wall but the neighbor is adamant and suggests "Good fences make good neighbors".
Themes of Mending Wall
The poem can be seen in many ways. Through the wall, the poet suggests how individuals create barriers to isolate themselves from others. It also gives impetus to the debate of nationalism and globalization as the wall can be the boundary between two nations. Thus, the poet stresses the idea of the free market.
The neighbor doesn’t agree with the poet and this dispute shows the frequent clash of modernity and traditionalism. In this sense, the poem becomes an argument of a generation where the youth is trying to throw away the age-old traditions while the older generation is trying to do anything to maintain the sanctity of traditions. The neighbor says twice "Good fences make good neighbors" (Lines 27, and 46). This is a strong message. The wall appears to separate the two neighbors but in reality, it brings them close. The wall is not only a physical reality, but it is an ideal sphere of one’s identity. The wall suggests that every individual has got right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and those rights must be respected and maintained. In a relationship, if there are limits to be respected, the relationship goes strong as the limits avoid oppression and humiliation of one by the other.
The poet also suggests that nature doesn’t like the wall between his and his neighbor’s farm and hence it continues to fall again and again. He attacks the neighbor using the word “savage” as he wants to shy away from others around him. However, it is just the opposite. Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage’s whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men. (Ayn Rand). Our clothes and dresses are also a form of the wall separating us from others. Giving us a sense of privacy against nakedness. Animals feel no shyness. The civilized, and intelligent people seek privacy, not the savages.
Structure of Mending Wall
The poem is a dramatic narrative written in blank verse. Iambic pentameter appears great as it offers a sense of speech and debate within the poem. The poem contains a single stanza of 46 lines without any end rhymes or rhyming patterns. However, the poet used assonance at end-words (wall, hill, balls, wall, and well sun, thing, stone, mean, line, and again or game, them, and him twice). Consonance has also been used “And set the wall between us once again”, (sound of /t and /n). Symbolism has been used as, “fence” to symbolize the ‘gap’ that one should maintain to establish long-lasting relationships and maintain privacy. “Nature” symbolizes the reunion of the two as the speaker meets his neighbor every year in spring to fix the fence. Frost also used metaphor and imagery in this poem. “And some are loaves and some so nearly balls”, “He is all pine and I am apple orchard” and “Not of woods only and the shade of trees.”
Summary of Mending Wall by Robert Frost
Lines 1 – 4:
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 poet begins by mentioning that there is ‘something’ mysterious that doesn’t like the wall between the two farms. The poet uses ‘something’ to clarify that it is not a work of humans, indicating nature. He speculates that the water beneath the ground freezes during the winter and swells. This forces an upward thrust that creates cracks in the wall. As the spring comes, the sun heats up and the cracks widen so much that two people can pass through it side by side and walk in the same direction.
Lines 5 – 11:
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.
In these lines, the poet says that the hunters are another challenge to the wall as the wall restricts the otherwise wider spread of the hunting ground. During the hunting season, the hunters come and damage the wall during their sports and never bother to repair it again. The poet says that he has been witness to the hunters' acts when they make holes in the wall for their dogs to catch rabbits. The hunters believe that no one is watching them over and hence, they do not sense the responsibility of repairing the wall before leaving. But the poet caught them doing so as he followed them and then repaired the wall. The poet suggests that it could be the hunters’ act as there are gaps in the wall again.
Lines 12 – 15:
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.
In these lines, the poet informs that his neighboring farmer lives on the other side of the hill and every year he informs his neighbor about the damage to the wall. The neighbor and the poet then decide on a day on which they both meet and walk along the wall, each on his side surveying the damage.
Lines 16 – 19:
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!’
In these lines, the poet expresses the act of mending the wall and how difficult the process is. The poet and the neighbor meet on a fixed day on their side of the farm and start putting back every single boulder that has fallen on each of the sides of the wall. The poet picks up the boulder fallen on his side and restores it, while the neighbor does the same on his side. However, it is a difficult and cumbersome task as there are many fallen boulders and they are not of the same size. Some are big, some small, some are very heavy, and some are light. They are not of the same shape too. Some are round and some are oblong and it is very difficult to balance them together in the wall as it is no less than magic to keep them at their places.
Lines 20 – 24:
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on aside. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
The poet tells how difficult the task is as his and his neighbor’s hands become rough and tired while handling the boulders. And it is unnecessary work, like a play, as the poet believes that they do not need the wall because they grow different kinds of plants. The poet grows apples, and his neighbor grows pine trees.
Lines 25 – 29:
My apple trees will never get across
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 wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
The poet has argued with his neighbor that since they grow different kinds of trees, the poet’s apples will never encroach on the land of his neighbor’s pines and thus they do not need the fencing wall. However, the neighbor is not convinced and he always answers ‘Good fences make good neighbors’ However, this time in spring, the poet is adamant to try another trick to make his neighbor realize and agree that they do not need the wall and hence, no need to mend it.
Lines 30 – 35:
‘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.’
The poet explains his trick, his new line of argument. He asks his neighbor why good fences make good neighbors? He explains to the neighbor that the grass on another side often attracts cows and to stop the cows from going to other person’s farms, they build fences. However, neither the poet nor his neighbor has got any cow, so why do they need the wall? The poet says that this time he will mend the wall only after knowing what his neighbor is keeping safe by building the wall and what is he keeping out of his reach. The poet stresses that this time, he might not agree to mend the wall without knowing the proper reason.
Lines 36 – 41:
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.
In these lines, the poet says that despite his initial adamancy, the act of mending the wall is going on as he failed to convince the neighbor. He again speculates that the wall could have been pulled down by some mysterious force, maybe the Elves. However, the poet decides not to say that to his neighbor as it may offend him which the poet doesn’t want. The poet rather wishes that his neighbor may himself realize it and give up the strenuous task of mending and keeping the wall.
The poet then observes his neighbor picking up a fallen boulder from the wall and feels that he resembles an uncouth and uncivilized inhabitant of the stone age, whose weapons are the very rocks that make up the wall.
Lines 42 – 46:
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.”
In these lines, the poet says that he feels that his neighbor has some kinship with the darkness or ignorance and he is not ready to learn new things, light. This darkness is not of dense woods and shades of tall trees. But this darkness is of rudimentary archaic ideas, thoughts, traditions, and rituals. The neighbor cannot disagree with his father in saying that good fences account for peace among neighbors.
Robert Frost an excellent use of Paradox in this poem by juxtaposing two opposing instances and opinions by repeating the contrasting lines ‘Something there is that doesn’t love a wall’ and ‘Good fences make good neighbors’. The poem ends with ‘Good fences make good neighbors’ as the poet suggests that this old saying may appear archaic and useless but it holds more weight and sense. Even if the neighbor is a savage, the wall will keep the poet safe against his neighbor, and mending the wall keeps these two neighbors peaceful and stable.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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