Thinking Activity
Robert Frost and Bob Dylan
Mending wall By Robert Frost - Original Poem
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 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 thought of it so well
He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’
Explain the poem:
"Mending Wall" is a poem by the twentieth-century American poet Robert Frost. It opens Robert's second collection of poetry, North of Boston. The poem was published in 1914. "Mending Wall" is a poem about two neighbors who come together each year to repair a stone wall that divides their properties. The speaker questions the necessity of the wall, his neighbors insists that it is important to maintain the tradition of wall mending.
Robert Frost explores themes of tradition, community, and the boundaries between people. The poem is about borders, the work it takes to maintain them and the way they shape human interactions. The speaker and the speaker's neighbors spend much of the poem rebuilding a wall that divides their properties.
Analyses Of the Poem:
The poem starts with the famous line, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," which immediately sets up the conflict between the speaker and his neighbors. This tension between individuality and community is central to the poem. The idea is that the wall represents a boundary between people.
The poet said that the natural world, represented by the trees, does not require boundaries in the same way that humans do. The poet describes that awareness of the complexity of human relationships and the need for careful consideration of the boundaries we create.
The speaker sees no reason for the wall to be kept there are no cows to be contained, just apple and pine trees. He does not believe in walls for the sake of walls.
The end of the poem , the poet said ,“Good fences make good neighbors.” The poet remains unconvinced and mischievously presses the neighbors to look beyond the old-fashioned folly of such reasoning. His neighbors will not be swayed. The poet envisions his neighbors as a holdover from a justifiably outmoded era, a living example of a dark-age mentality. But the neighbors simply repeats the adage.
Theme:
The title "Mending Wall" suggests the theme of repairing a wall. The poem is not just about the physical act of fixing a wall, but also explores deeper themes of tradition, boundaries, and human connection.
Boundaries
Tradition and change
Human connection
Image and Language
Figure of speech:
Repetition: "Good fences make good neighbors".
Metaphor: "Something there is that doesn't love a wall".
Personification: "He moves in darkness as it seems to me, / Not of woods only and the shade of trees".
Form and Structure of the Poem:
"Mending Wall" is written in blank verse. There is no regular rhyme scheme. The poem is divided into 11 stanzas, each containing varying numbers of lines. This irregular structure reflects the theme of the poem, which is the tension between individuality and tradition. The use of enjambment.
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