Why Walls?
In the poem “Mending Wall” the author Robert Frost uses poetic elements to express the idea that barriers to communication, exchange of ideas and relationships should be questioned. By the use of particular form, rhythm and tone, his choice of words, and use of imagery and symbols the author uses a small poem to express a large idea.
The poem is written in blank verse, which is unrimed iambic pentameter. According to the authors of Backpack Literature, X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, “Many writers, such as Robert Frost, feel iambs most easily capture the natural rhythms of our speech.” (503) This is a good choice for this lyric poem in which the speaker seems to be sharing his observations with the reader as if they were friends.
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This is not a condemnation of people who build walls, or a rallying call to tear down a wall. It is more like a conversation starter. The lack of rime combined with the easy rhythm and casual tone inspire the reader to think about barriers that people build between each other and whether they are really necessary.
The choice of words also encourage the reader to think about the divisions, both tangible and intangible, that people use to protect, defend or define themselves. In the poem, when the “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall” (1) “makes gaps even two can pass abreast” (4), the use of the word ‘abreast’ gives an image of people who are friendly enough with each other to walk closely, side by side through the opening in the wall. Strangers would probably go through one at a time to respect each other’s personal space. Using the word ‘something’ leaves a bit of mystery to the poem, encouraging readers to continue reading to find out
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The wall in the poem is a stone wall between the fields belonging to two neighbors. In the spring they work together to “set the wall between us once again” (14). The wall is a symbol for division, separation and barriers to friendship, communication and relationships. The author’s use of the tactile image of “we wear our fingers rough with handling them” (20) shows how much effort is involved in maintaining walls. Maintaining distance between other people also requires effort. In the line “He is all pine and I am apple orchard” (24) the author uses the symbol of the two different types of trees to represent the two neighbors, and the difference between staying fixed behind a rigid wall and being willing to be open to new ideas, to allow the wall to come down. The neighbor’s pines are a hard wood with prickly pine cones and needle shaped leaves that are unchanging as an evergreen. His ideas are also hard and unchanging. The speaker’s trees are deciduous apple trees that provide nourishing food, sweet smelling flowers and change with the seasons like his openness to the idea of leaving the wall down. There is also a contrast between the speaker’s fanciful description of the “something that doesn’t love a wall” (35) as elves (36) and the image of the neighbor as “an old-stone savage”
The wall that Bowden discusses is the barrier between the United States and the country of Mexico to the south. He uses the terms fences, borders, and barricades. Part of the wall is constructed of metal. Other portions are concrete. Each of the materials that are used is hard and designed to be uncomfortable and discouraging to those who see it, effectively creating both a physical and psychological barrier between acceptable and unacceptable populations. The purpose of the wall, according to Bowden, is to keep a certain population out of the United States. Mexican illegal immigrants are crossing the border into the United States in large numbers. For the American government, illegal immigration is an unacceptable set of circumstances and the purpose of erecting a wall was to keep those people from crossing the border into the United States. Bowden explains that the wall is effective only until the point when inclination and desire of the excluded population overcomes the existence of the wall. People will then cross over it or crash through it. If their will is strong enough, then the people will be able to overcome the wall, making its presence outdated and ineffectual. Since people overcome the wall, there is no need to keep the wall or to provide moneys to either enlarge it or for the upkeep of the wall. Each
One quote the author gives from someone in favor of the wall is from a man named Dan Duley who lives on the United States side of the wall. He says “We need help. We’re being invaded. They’ve taken away our jobs, our security. I’m just a
In the mid-nineteenth century Romantic trend in American Literature, authors often used the idea of “walls’ that human beings place between themselves and others both physically and symbolically. Unlike a fence of gate, which imply a way in or out, a wall is a sound structure. A wall is a barrier to block someone else out, or is it used to block yourself in?
The author was trying to get people to understand that fences aren’t just about keeping people out ,but to keep loved ones, Such as friends and family in and opposed to keeping them out so they will grow distant until they no longer wish to be with you or to get into it with
“Mending Wall”, by Robert Frost, is a poem that tells the story of two neighbors with very different viewpoints, who are engaged in the keeping and repairing of a stone wall, an artificial barrier, between each of their properties year after year, even though there seems to be no good reason to continue doing so. The story of how the wall is mended every year is told from the perspective of “the speaker”, who compares his feelings about continuing to maintain this barrier, to the traditional attitude and behavior of “the neighbor”, who feels that the wall should remain because “good fences make good neighbors”. In the poem, the speaker questions why the two of them agree to meet at the wall each year, to walk the line, and to continue rebuilding the parts that have fallen or have been knocked down. The speaker points out that not only do the two neighbors have no animals to prevent crossing onto each others properties that might eat the other’s crops, but he states that even the forces of nature, the native wildlife, and even other people such as hunters, seem to show that maintaining the wall is useless and futile.
In his poem 'Mending Wall', Robert Frost presents to us the thoughts of barriers linking people, communication, friendship and the sense of security people gain from barriers. His messages are conveyed using poetic techniques such as imagery, structure and humor, revealing a complex side of the poem as well as achieving an overall light-hearted effect. Robert Frost has cleverly intertwined both a literal and metaphoric meaning into the poem, using the mending of a tangible wall as a symbolic representation of the barriers that separate the neighbors in their friendship.
However, when the responders’ delves deeper into the poem, it is clear that at a allegorical level the wall is a metaphor representing the barrier that exists in the neighbours’ friendship. The first eleven lines of the poem if rife with imagery that describes the dilapidation of the wall. The first line of the poem emphasises that “something” exists that “doesn’t love a wall”. This personification makes the “something” seem human-like. The use of words such as “spills” and “makes gaps” convey an image of animate actions and create a vivid impression of the degradation of the wall. Nature, presented in the form of cold weather, frost and the activities of creatures, also seeks to destroy the wall. The idea that walls are unnatural and therefore nature abhors walls is portrayed in the phrase “makes gaps even two can pass abreast”, which metaphorically indicates that nature desires for man to walk side by side with no barrier between them. When the two meet to fix the wall, it is a metaphor that could be interpreted as the two repairing their friendship as “To each the boulders have fallen to each” which shows that faults in their relationship lie on behalf of them both. While they are mending the wall, a light-hearted tone is established. This is shown through the inclusion of the metaphor “spring is mischief in me” which shows the neighbours having fun together in repairing the wall,
The poet also used imagery to appeal to the senses. The puzzling force that abhors the wall "sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, and spills the upper boulders in the sun."
The narrator of this poem is trying to convince these two that there is no point in this wall because it is not keeping anything off of each others property. The neighbors try to convince them otherwise. Finding common ground between two people helps build strong relationships. The author shows this by the dialogue between the narrator and the neighbors, the symbol of the wall, and third idea.
Similar to “Acquainted with the Night,” isolation is a major theme in “Mending Wall.” In “Mending Wall,” there are two characters: the speaker and the neighbor. The two characters have two different opinions on what make a “good neighbor.” The neighbor views walls as a crucial object in
While the narrator seems more willing to reach out to his neighbor, in the end, he does not. He does wonder why fences supposedly make good neighbors. For him, the question is what is he "walling in or walling out"? He seems to realize that he is "walling out" other people. As long as the symbolic wall stands between the neighbors, they will always be separated. Earlier in the poem, Frost uses the symbolism of a rabbit to seemingly reinforce this point. The hunters must destroy the wall in order to "have the rabbit out of hiding". The men, in turn must break down the walls between them if they are to come out of "hiding". The narrator seems to have a desire to point this out to his neighbor. However, he does not, simply dismissing his idea as "the mischief" that spring has instilled in him. He realizes that he is unable to communicate with his neighbor in any meaningful fashion and, thus, remains in isolation from him.
With that, a regional spirit of racism and bigotry is felt from the neighbor. The speaker scorns his neighbor’s wall building antics, but has no choice but to settle with them. Ironically though, the speaker is way more involved and indulged with the annual repairing of the wall more so than the neighbor. The speaker tends to “bug” the neighbor about the wall in a way and comes off very clingy. He seems very excited about repairing a wall that he despises. The speaker sets the day they will repair on the wall together and also informs. Regardless of the, dubious attitude that the speaker gives off, it seems that he is more tied to the mending-wall tradition, more than the neighbor. The speaker comes off more of a modern man, while the neighbor is stuck in ancient, with building a “wall”. However, the speaker is no different from the neighbor; he likes his privacy and his sense of ownership.
In the poem, “The Mending Wall” Frost creates a lot of ambiguity in order to leave the poem open for interpretation. Frost’s description of every detail in this poem is very interesting, it leaves the reader to decide for themselves what deductions they are to be making of the poem. To begin with, Frost makes literal implications about what the two men are doing. For instance, they are physically putting the stones back, one by one. Their commitment and constant drive shows how persistent these men seem about keeping the wall intact. On the other hand, there are inferences that something deeper is occurring.
Frost used a distinct way of writing throughout his poem that not only hooked the reader into the story, but also made them question their own views of walls, both physical and psychological. In the poem it is displayed that walls can be both good and bad. The wall that the narrator sees as the embodiment of what separates them, it is actually the one thing that brings them together every spring. Near the end, the narrator brings back the original question, what is the something? With this poem, maybe Frost wanted the reader to examine themselves and their surroundings and try to answer the question of tradition, and how they unite us and separates us at the same time. The narrator’s neighbor is the personification of the old ways and custom in the poem, it is evident as he is constantly repeating “good fences make good neighbors” (Frost 245) and the fact that “he will not go behind his father’s saying” (Frost 246). Even though, good fences make good neighbors is a well-known proverb, people will eventually ask themselves: Why is it necessary to have fences to build good