Mending+Wall-+Robert+Frost

__ Mending Wall- Robert Frost (1914)  __ 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 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 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.

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 neighbors'.

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 offence.

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 neighbors." POINTS TO PONDER __ Robert Frost- Mending Walls __


 * What is the meaning of the first four lines?
 * What makes the gap in the stone walls?
 * Why do hunters tear apart a wall?
 * Why might the speaker consider that rebuilding the wall again is “Just another kind of out- door game”?
 * In general, why might the saying “Good fences make good neighbors” be true?
 * Why does the speaker think that the saying is not true for his and his neighbor’s wall?
 * What is it that the speaker imagines does not love a wall?
 * What does it tell us about the neighbor that he won’t consider any other idea about whether to maintain the wall?
 * What are the differences between the speaker and the neighbor?

__ Classical links __ : In the Greek myth of Sisyphus, he is condemned to roll a boulder up the hill again and again only for it to come rolling down. Here too, the fence is brought down again and again by the hunters and the task of putting it up repeatedly is conveyed. __ Colloquial contractions __ : doesn’t, “I’d”, “it’s” __ First person __ - the poet himself or a persona created… __ No stanza division __ - Seems to reflect a chatty nature of the conversation __ Narrator’s ruminations contrasts with the neighbor’s terseness __ - digresses, asks questions, repeats itself, makes suppositions __ Biblical maxim __ - //Good fences make good neighbors// __ Central paradox of the poem __ : Two men meet on civil, neighborly terms to build a wall between them __ Historical links __ : In ancient Rome, there was an annual festival at boundaries, where neighbors would meet and celebrate their existence. Kennedy quoted the opening line at the inspection of the Berlin Wall. Ambiguity: ??? Seems to be mocking the neighbor’s irrationality and slavery to the ritual __ Ancient and primitive associations __ - “old stone savage”; moving in “darkness” __ Reference to cycle of seasons __ - “Once again”, “frozen”, “spring is the mischief in me” Ancient need of boundaries signifying order and civilization __ Walls metaphorically mean __ rules, laws, boundaries, codes of behavior and rights. __ Magical elements __ - Elves Seems to suggest that life is made up of cells which is always breaking down, rebuilding and breaking down again. New world order, new social structure, new community values and time moves on. Remember, in most of Frost poems, we have the sense of “moving on”, creating new life, new purpose…
 * __ Question to ponder __** - Is repairing the wall a creative or destructive act? Is it an attempt at anarchy, breaking down walls, or an attempt at creating harmony, uniting communities and breaking segregation?