Mending Wall
“ Mending wall” is philosophical poem of Robert Frost in which he comments on the secretive attitude of modern man, every human being in present times has become a castle, he does not want to come out of that secretive attitude and he would not allow any other person to knoed about it. This secretive attitude of modern man it’s brought to light in the present poem.
The subject matter of the poem is repairing of a wall between the house of a poet and his neighbor. The poet is not in favor of having a wall between his house and the neighbor house. But his neighbor is instating own having a wall. The poet finds the present of some unseen force or element which does not like the wall. That is the reason why wall is a having gapes and cracks in it. The implied meaning is that god does not want a man should remain away and aloof from the other man. But the neighbor of the poet is of different opinion. He believes that there must be a wall because, “ good fences make good neighbors”. The neighbor prefers to repair that wall again and again because he would like to keep distance from the poet. Poet compares him self with an orchard of an apple and his neighbor with the forest of pine trees. It’s suggests that the nature of poet is different from that of his neighbor. His neighbor poets stones on the wall and arranges these stones with a good balanced. So that those stones may not fall down. The poet doesn’t like it because he does not want any wall between his house and his neighbor’s house.
The present poem is sarcastic remark on human relations in modern time. The attitude of modern man has become so strange and secretive that he does not want to share any matter or object of his own with others. He would like to keep a wall around him in such a way that there may not be any interaction between him and others. This attitude of modern man is highlighted in the present poem.
Symbols:
1) Wall and fences
The wall is the shining star of this poem. It unites our speaker and his neighbor, but separates them as well. As we hear the neighbor speak the proverb twice ("Good fences make good neighbors"), we start to consider all of the wall-like structures in our life: fences, gates, boundaries, lines, etc. The wall serves as a canvas upon which a lot of complex ideas about the ways in which people, and their relationships with others, are painted and discussed.
2) Nature and tradition:
Nature seems to act as the third wheel in this poem – the silent character swirling around the speaker and his neighbor. Although he doesn’t explicitly describe the landscape, we see it very clearly, and we seem to know what the seasons are like in this part of the world. Similarly, tradition seems to be the silent subject over which the speaker and his neighbor wrestle. The neighbor upholds his ancestors’ way of life, while our speaker questions this philosophy.
Themes
1) Man and natural world
Our speaker takes great pains to describe the setting of this New England countryside. He tells us right off the bat, "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," (lines 1-3). In doing so, he points nature. Nature seems to be the unnamed culprit who, in addition to hunters, continues to destroy the wall. As the poem unfolds, we learn how spring (and all of its feverish weather and spirit of new life) makes our speaker a bit mischievous. We see in this poem the sharp contrast between the natural and the artificial, nature and man.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall (line 1)
Doesn’t this first line sound like a riddle, or like a sentence flipped upside down? To us, this "something" sounds pretty darn mysterious and big, and the sentence construction makes us feel like this "something" lurks very near. How would the effect differ if the first line is, "there is something that doesn’t love a wall" or even, "someone 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. (lines 2-4)
Wow, this "something" sure is something. Here, we understand that this entity can make frost appear, and, thus, disturb the rock wall. We think it’s interesting that there are three monosyllabic verbs stacked neatly on top of each other in these lines: "that sends," "and spills," "and makes." Such verbs make us feel the momentum that they describe, and we start to think that the "something" is kind of all-powerful and cool.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game (line 21)
Because the rock wall is man-made, the business of sticking little, round stones back into the wall is the work of maintaining this artificial, man-made thing-a-ma-bob. The speaker’s nonchalant attitude toward the mending process contrasts with the more serious, ominous attitude that he possesses in the beginning of the poem when he says, "Something there is that doesn’t love a wall" (line 1).
2) Tradition and customs:
When the neighbour first says, "Good fences make good neighbours," we know that we’ve heard this saying before. When he echoes it at the end of the poem, we realize that this saying was passed down to our neighbour from his father. In this way, the neighbour represents tradition and custom, relying on the past to serve as his guide. The speaker describes his neighbour as "an old-stone savage," making us think of a Neanderthal or caveman. In so doing, our speaker seems to challenge old-school methods, and paints a picture of the wall as antiquated or uncivilized.
But spring mending-time we find them there. (line 11)
This broken wall thing happens like clockwork. Every spring, the speaker realizes that the wall needs mending. Why spring? Is this because the speaker doesn’t really get out much in the cold New England winter, and, so, the first time he’s able to inspect the wall is when the weather gets nicer? If this is your wall, would you put up with needing to mend it every spring, or would you take some preventative measures to try to keep it intact?
I let my neighbour know beyond the hill; (line 12)
Does this mean that there is a hill between our speaker’s property and his neighbour’s house? In that case, between the wall and the hill there are two barriers. As part of the annual mending wall custom, we think it’s downright fascinating that the speaker is the one who starts up the "Hey, neighbor, let’s go mend that wall" conversation. But, he doesn’t like the wall, right? Or, maybe he does like the wall? Perhaps, he likes the opportunity to hang out with someone else every year, even if they are on separate sides of the wall?
He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbours.’ (line 27)
This neighbour is one quiet dude. We think it’s a little creepy that the only thing he says for himself (ever) is this proverb. Not only that, but it’s not a proverb that he stumbles upon himself – his father passes it down to him. We have a very hard time visualizing this neighbour because he only speaks in clichéd, proverb form. He seems like a very generalize-able man, as compared with our mischievous speaker.
3) Language and communication:
There is definitely disconnected between our speaker and his neighbor. They work together to mend the wall, but they don’t talk to each other as they go along. The speaker wishes to put a "notion" in his neighbor’s head, but he doesn’t actually attempt to challenge his neighbor’s love of the wall. The wall takes on greater meaning as we watch the lines of communication shut down between the speaker and his neighbor.
I have come after them and made repair (line 6)
Why doesn’t out speaker just ask the hunters not to hunt on his property? Or, why doesn’t he just post a sign saying, "No Bunny Hunting?" Instead, he seems locked in some passive-aggressive battle with the disrespectful hunters, and he seems content to follow after them and clean up.
4) Exploration:
When we talk about "exploration" here, we don’t necessarily mean Christopher Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci. Our speaker explores uncharted waters as he begins to question why there needs to be a wall between his property and his neighbor’s property. Our speaker challenges the old-school values that his neighbor embodies.
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, (lines 8-9)
Does exploration involve an end-goal? Like the speaker trying to solve the mystery of the wall, these hunters try to corner little bunny rabbits. If we follow this comparison through, the hunters parallel the "something" that doesn’t love a wall, and the bunny rabbits parallel, perhaps, the meaning of the wall. Can it be that we, the readers of this poem, are like the hunters, too? Are we trying to find something or figure something out, as well?
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head: (lines 28-29)
Does the speaker seem a little arrogant to you here? Why doesn’t he just express this notion, rather than wonder if he can somehow magically make his neighbour rethink the whole wall thing? How can anyone go about putting a notion in another person’s head? At this moment, the speaker seems to explore the realms of his neighbour’s mind
5) Versions of reality:
There’s a whole lot of imagining and speculating in this poem. For example, from lines 30-37, our speaker imagines the thoughts his neighbor might think if he questions the necessity of his old stone wall. The speaker’s reality and that of his neighbor are very different, and these contrasting versions of reality form the backbone of the juicy debate which takes place in the world of this poem: old vs. new, tradition vs. innovation, isolation vs. community.
The work of hunters is another thing: (line 5)
The hunters definitely destroy the wall, but their "work" is very different from the work of another force which seems to be in play. Why does the speaker bring the hunters up if he knows that they have nothing to do with the "something" that doesn’t love a wall? What role do the hunters play in this poem?
We keep the wall between us as we go. (line 15)
Just as the speaker and his neighbour have two different perspectives on the importance of and need for a wall, they literally have two different sides. The wall separates their versions of reality.
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’ (lines 18-19)
The speaker and his neighbour venture into the realm of (pretend) magic in order to fix their wall. The "spell" they invoke here makes us think of the "elves" that the speaker mentions later on in the poem. The silliness of such things contrasts greatly with the seriousness of the task at hand.
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