Preview

Summary Of Robert Frost's Mending Wall

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
619 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Summary Of Robert Frost's Mending Wall
The judge’s gavel hit the sound block and just like that I had been sold to the highest bidder, or at least it seemed that way. My Aunt was awarded custody of me and I felt abandoned by my mother. As a result of this trauma, I erected imaginary boundaries to prevent that emotional pain and hide that shame from others. I use this boundary as a protection from people, just as the neighbor in “Mending Wall,” emotionally protects himself. Poems by Robert Frost: A Boy’s Will and North of Boston, is a collection of Robert Frost’s poems which he offers both a surface and a deep meaning for readers to infer. In Frost’s poem “Mending Wall,” he states a literal wall damaged by others and nature is being repaired by two neighbors; however, through profound analysis the wall is a symbol in which the neighbor established as a psychological barriers to protect his emotional scars. …show more content…
The reason for beginning with Frost’s poem from the literal stance is to establish a foundation in which symbols are used as metaphors. “Mending Wall,” is literally after winter when the speaker and his neighbor repair the wall. A wall which was damaged by unseen nature and hunters. As they repair the wall the speaker questions the reason why the neighbor wants the wall repaired. He infers that their trees are different and produce opposite things. Even though, the speaker internally questions why the neighbor wants to keep this wall amid them, he wonders if he can cause the neighbor to question his own ideas about the wall. He does not act on this thought instead he continues to walk down the wall rebuilding it from his side, as the neighbor does the same.
Once the speaker finally questions the neighbor as to why they are building a literal wall, he receives the response “Good fences make good neighbors” (76). This statement by the neighbor shows he wants to maintain physical boundaries around his

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    To paraphrase this poem, it is about two neighbors who annually meet to fix the wall that divides them. One neighbor thinks that the wall is unnecessary, especially because they do not have anything that needs to be contained like animals. However, the other neighbor believes the wall should remain, and keeps repeating the phrase, “Good fences make good neighbors.”…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the poem “Mending Wall” Robert Frost uses form, function, and philosophy to create meaning. To do this he uses many different techniques like blank verse, enjambment, end-stopped lines, syntax, meter, and iambic pentameter. These techniques are used to support the main theme of tradition versus innovation.…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Cited: Clarke, Peter. “Mending Wall.” Rev. of Frost’s Mending Wall, ed. Robert Frost. Explicator Fall 1984: p48. Print.…

    • 1768 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Mending Wall

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The speaker conveys the difference between his neighbor and himself. The wall symbolizes the split of personalities and properties between the neighbors. "He is all pine and I am [an] apple orchard," the speaker says. He also says that "my apple trees will never get across and eat his pines." Referring to the wall, the speaker means that nothing on his property will be any harm to his neighbor's property or belongings. When the neighbor says "Good Fences make good Neighbors," his difference in opinion shines through. The speaker believes he doesn't need the wall, he doesn't understand what he was "walling in or walling out." However, his neighbor believes the opposite. He has a reason for the wall. His father's saying was "Good Fences make good neighbors," so he doesn't want to undermine his father's beliefs. The neighbor, in the speaker's eyes, does not believe he can think for himself. The speaker however, has his own set of beliefs, not guided through a parent figure. He thought for himself and did not let anyone influence his beliefs; which lead to how their personalities differ along with their beliefs.…

    • 629 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Mending Wall is a metaphor for the frustration Frost feels with the inability to maintain human relationships and the forces that are tearing those relationships down. The imagery in the poem depicts a broken wall and describes boulders that have fallen. This paints a portrait of an…

    • 1293 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Frost’s collections of work have not always been considered groundbreaking, for his first book of poems was published when he was forty. Parini even noted that regardless of his early writings and lack of success, he went on to read at a Presidential inauguration and won four Pulitzer Prizes for his poetry. Frost’s poems were even recognized in England as being “Much finer, much more near the ground, and much more national, in the true sense, than anything Whitman gave the world” (Frost Teacher). “Mending Wall” on the surface deals specifically with the ideological struggle between neighbors. This struggle does not go unnoticed even through the eyes of critics and explications alike.…

    • 2096 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    After differences have been overcome, it is necessary to use those aberrations to help solve problems and gain mutual benefit. The narrator ponders the notion of cooperating with the neighbor to take down the wall, but he is discouraged from that because of his neighbor's persistence in the quote: "Good fences make good neighbors" (line twenty-seven). While the narrator does cooperate with the neighbor to build the wall, it is only him reaching for any kind of cooperation, instead of complete division. His true wishes are for the two of them to take down the wall, but that requires cooperation from…

    • 580 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Frost uses imagery right from the beginning that lets us know a little bit of the setting with “frozen-ground” (Line 2). He also uses assonance in lines 2-3: “Sends…Swell / Spills, Sun”. In lines 17-19, Frost uses metaphor, personification, and hyperbole. A metaphor compares the stone blocks to loaves and balls. A metaphor-hyperbole compares the method of placing the rocks to a spell. Frost uses alliteration: “Before I built a wall I'd ask to know / What I was walling in or walling out” (32-33). Frost's description of every detail in this poem is quite interesting, very pleasant to read, and extremely imaginable. He leaves the reader to decide for himself what deductions he is to make from the reading. On one hand, Frost makes literal implications about what the two men are doing. For instance, they are physically putting the stones back, one by one. Their dedication, commitment, and constant drive shines through when reading how persistence these men seem about keeping the wall intact. Quite the contrary however, is the inferences that something even deeper is going on. There is a sharing experience taking place here. Indeed, by laboring so hard, each man is experiencing physical repercussions, but…

    • 1121 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This is reflected in Robert Frost’s poem ‘Mending Wall’ where the persona ultimately accepts his discovery of the inevitability and futility of barriers that separate individuals and, by association, humanity. This is exemplified through the strong visual imagery of, “two can pass abreast” to refer to the fact that the hole in the wall can allow these neighbours who have differing perspectives, to come together and pass through the wall, side-by-side. The indirect link to unity by not mending the “wall” is important as the personas idea is challenged by the nature. This is reflective of the responder’s context as it challenges the widely held assumptions about human experience and the wider world. The idea is further stated intellectually in the poem where the, “gaps I mean” refers to the “walls”. The personal pronoun and the metaphor accentuate the “gap” in relationship between neighbours. It is important to note that the walls that bring the two people together and apart are not necessarily bad things as it allows space for privacy for self-reflection and human solitude. This allows the persona to lead to renewed perceptions and the values upheld by the neighbour. This notion is further strengthened in the last line of the poem where the repetition of the adage, “Good fences make good neighbours” exemplifies that the ‘neighbour’…

    • 1015 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Analysis of Mending Wall

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Like other of Frost poems, ‘mending wall’ involves a journey. We are introduced to two farmers in an annual meeting at the wall that separates their properties. They walk the length of the wall, repairing damage that has been done during the year. This process allows us to think the whole question of communication or, more precisely, the way we put up walls and create barriers between ourselves.…

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The speaker in the poem, “Mending Wall,” finds himself contemplating the perplexing obstacles that deal with the wall between his and his neighbor’s properties¹. Every spring when the wall needs repair, “[He] [lets] [his] neighbor know beyond the hill/ And on a day [they] meet to walk the line...[they] wear [their] fingers rough with handling them...[and yet] it comes to little more” (10-11, 20, 23). When seeing that work is needed, he goes to his neighbor seeking…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If a wall needs repair every year, it is not a good fence. Yet, it does make good neighbors because it brings the men together every spring. Maybe the neighbor's father had this very same intention too. The two characters meet and know more about each other when they work on the wall together. This explanation is quite ironic because the wall is meant to…

    • 2385 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    'Mending Wall',

    • 2316 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The theme of the poem is about two neighbors who disagree over the need of a wall to separate their properties. Not only does the wall act as a divider in separating estates, it also acts as a barrier in the neighbors’ friendship, separating them. For the neighbor with the pine trees, the wall is of great significance, as it provides a sense of security and privacy. He believes that although two people can still be friendly neighbors, some form of barrier is needed to separate them and 'wall in' the personal space and privacy of the individual.…

    • 2316 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Mending Wall Robert Frost

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The speaker in Frost’s, “Mending Wall” expresses through thoughts primarily the necessity for a wall between himself and his neighbor. Every year the wall is damaged by weather and hunters as the speaker indicates, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall (Frost, 51).” Additionally, the speaker asks his neighbor of what purpose is there is such a wall as what is grown on his land is completely different from what grows on his neighbors land, “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…

    • 1488 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oddly enough, the inspiration for “Mending Wall” came before World War 1 when Frost and his family were living in New England, (Galens, 2002). Frost heard the infamous quote “Good fences make good neighbors” from his…

    • 1129 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays