Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it
And spills the upper boulder in the sun,
And make 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 outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There were 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 offense.
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 though of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.”
Mending Wall
Analysis, meaning and summary of Robert Frost's poem Mending Wall
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Do you have any comments, criticism, paraphrasis or analysis of this poem that you feel would assist other visitors in understanding the meaning or the theme of this poem by Robert Frost better? If accepted, your analysis will be added to this page of American Poems. Together we can build a wealth of information, but it will take some discipline and determination.
This poem has nothing to do with the Berlin Wall. The poem was written in 1914, and the Berlin Wall was built in The 1960s. He’s talking about the walls we build around us to protect our inner selves from others. We don’t want everyone to know everything about us. Many people build walls to hid their true feelings, thoughts, or even past life experiences. We even build walls to keep our memories from returning to painful times in our lives. The stones are symbolic of the things we are trying to block people out of – you may drop your guard and open up(stone falling off the fence), but then something happens and we build the wall back up.
This is a poem which requires much thought, Frost seems to be referring to the mending wall as a relationship between two neighbors who barely speak or talk to one another but share a common interest of repairing the fence. This way they both stay out of each others hair and that makes them appreciate the fence and what it does for them.
it is a very weird peom and it confuses me, i dont think that its a good one because it is too repetitive and i dont really like it, it bores me. yours truely em
this poem is about the cold war which is refered to in this poem.The poet robert frost is on the american side of the cold war and its about the berlin wall. the germans want the wall up to stop the americans coming over and to keep the germans from going over to the americans side of germany. This is the deep meaning of the poem “mending wall”.
This is an excellent poem about the narrator and his neighbor. The narrator and his neighbor mend the wall together, each time strengthening the emotional barriers between them. When the narrator says that, “he moves in darkness it seems to me” much is told. This comment from the poem states that the neighbor means nothing to him, just bad, perhaps evil. The narrator is selfless in a way in saying this because this may be what the neighbor likes. I do NOT belive that this poem is a battle of emotional wills, but a battle of self confidence and perserverence in one another.
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–To understand this poem fully, I think that you need to read it as much, if not more than 7 times.
A beautiful poem full of hidden meaning and literary elements. ^^
i love this poem, it is describing the relationship between 2 neighbors and how they don’t get along and arent the best of friends but they are there for each other. they have the fence up and it is a barrier between their feelings…like a lot of us today, we have walls up against others but at some point our walls may fall.
its a story between the writer and his friend. its almost as if at the start the writer does not want to be friends with the other party, thus drawing up a wall. later on he wants to be frenz, and they meet. but theres still this wall between them, so theres tension between them. And he tries to make friends again, but the other party simply rejects him saying tat good fences make good neighbours, showing he wants a barrier between the two of them
I disagree with the last comment I believe the Mending Wall really is about society and how men have to have these barriers around are emotional stabillity. Its necessary for these barriers for men to live in comfort. Thats why they keep rebuilding the wall.
I think Frost’s poem is about two country neighbours who share the maintenance of a fence. One of the neighbours is sick of repairing the fence and tries to convince his recluse friend to tear the fence down and that fences are for cows but the friend says, “Good fences make good neighbours.”
This poem came up when discussing a neighbors wall and it seems that the wall is permeable it creates not only the boundary but the basis for interaction. The yearly discussion and mending of the wall. It is the wall that brings them together. It is what makes the relationship stable. Even though the voice of the narrator is confused the underlying theme is good fences make good neighbors.
In the poem mending wall by robert frost the speaker feels that it is pointless to put obstacles between others when it is not necessary. He uses cows as a legitimate reason to have a barrie between others but they do not have cows therefore he is left confused, basically the speaker wants human interaction and the neighbor does not he is ignorant and gives no explanation for his belief.
I feel it is a question of what to leave behind and ,what to learn from.Or you can say, what to wall in or, to wall out. The neighbor is a symbol for someone who is interested in digging deeper to figure you out while,you are eger to put up your defences once again.The neighbor yet again finds you strange and decides to add a reason (stone) to your mindset.
i myself thought mending wall was an extremly boring poem and was not interesting at all.to be quite frank,it bored the tits off me!!
i myself thought it was an extremly crap poem.it was not at all interesting and to be quite frank,it bored the tits of me
I believe that Frost is speaking about he walls that we as humans create to shut out others or protect ourselves from others. We tend to use these walls in many ways. First, to maintain our privacy. Second, to draw a line between two countries that aren’t getting along and trying to keep the other out of there area. But, most of all we need to ask ourself, “what is it that we are walling out?” I also belive that the walls that Frost is talking about are a reference to seperation and segregation. Overall, he is saying who likes a wall and why should we have them.
butrfly
To me the poem is about teamwork. It is about the limits of who we are. Knowing where we meet and how to meet is a good thing. The wall is the network that keeps us together. Without the wall, we would not meet. This is not the Berlin Wall or that wall being put up between palestine and israel. it’s a wall that defines us. We both need the wall, that’s why we maintain it, and that’s why ‘good fences make good neighbors’. That’s what it means…to me.
i think that the poem means how we always cover ourselves from each other with walls and we keep on doing because we think it willmake things better but it really doesnt and then even though we dont want to build these walls we still do it because no one would back down and say that this is wrong…..anyway i love this poem and i think robert frost is a really great poet…
I think Frost’s poem is so in depth and there is so much I could say about it. Mending a wall is ironic, because your mending an element that is designed to keep out. This whole poem is about how men are quite dominant and a patriarchal view of the society we live in is showed. He lived in over a hundred years ago, but the poem applies to the modern society as well. It extends from there to argument and that can be linked to today’s wars and all sorts of things like that.
This poem is rather confusing, like most of Robert Frost’s poems. Although his poems are confusing i seek refuge in them. I dont always understand them but they alwa ys comfort me. thanks dude!!!