Mending Wall

Robert Frost

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.”

Background to Robert Frost

American poet

Write deceptively simple verse but with subtle and profound thoughts and feelings

Teacher and a farmer

Symbolism from the countryside of New England

Focuses mainly on relationship between man and nature – usually at odds with one another – man will never really be able to understand nature

Won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry four times

“The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the rest willing to let them.”

ROBERT FROST

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep.

ROBERT FROST

Background to “Mending Wall”

Examines the nature and purpose of WALLS by contrasting man and nature: one builds walls, the other destroys them

Central refrain:

“Good fences make good neighbours”

Speaker: dislikes or disapproves of walls, understands that they divide and separate people

Neighbour: likes and approves of walls, sees them as creating boundaries and fostering good neighbourliness

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.

Speaker feels there is something living, natural thing which does not like walls and causes them to fall down

“Something”: sense of mystery, cannot be rationalised

Water in ground freezes, expands and causes the ground to swell

Compound noun: describes the process

Nature appears contemptuous of man’s efforts

The ground swells under the wall and causes the boulders (dry stone wall) to collapse

Spills…in the sun: sense of abandon and generosity – vs the meanness and pettiness of man who restricts and builds walls

The missing boulders form gaps in the wall that are big enough for two people to walk through side-by-side

Speaker approves of this – allows people to communicate rather than set up divisions between them

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.

Sometimes he can see that hunters have broken the wall down

The speaker’s respect for nature is obvious in his attitude towards the hunter and the 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 neighbour know beyond the hill;

The gaps he finds most interesting are those that appear mysteriously, for which there appears to be no rational cause

This adds to the sense of mystery introduced in line 1

Seems to be a regular, seasonal “job” that happens once a year

“beyond the hill” – stresses distance – the wall has not been erected to ensure privacy

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.

IRONY:The only time they meet is when they repair the wall that keeps them separate

Stresses the repetitive cycle –

man is subjected to the seasonal shifts –

also suggests the inevitability of the wall collapsing and having to be rebuilt on an annual basisRepairing of the wall – sense of separation

and division – each keeps to his own side of the wall – do not cross over onto the other’s property

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!'

Repetition of “each” stresses their separateness and also the

neighbour’s somewhat childish and absurd attitude – if the stone is on your side then you pick it up

Different shapes and sizes

METAPHOR

METAPHOR

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:

Narrator’s attitude is playful – he cannot take it seriously and does

not consider it important

Division & separateness

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 neighbours'.

Neighbour’s negative attitude –

good social relationships cannot exist when men are separated from one

another

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: 'Why do they make good neighbours?

Wants to shake up his neighbour’s attitude – see if he can suggest an alternative view or

another way of looking at the wall….

Is he implying that the

neighbour is “empty-headed”?

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.

He cannot see any practical purpose for the wall – no cows to be separated by the wall –

he stresses the ABSURDITY of building the wall in this particular location

In his mind the wall has to serve some

logical purpose

Some people are upset by the presence of the wall – e.g. the

speaker – he feels that he has been shut out without any real reason

PUN

Some natural (now supernatural) thing in nature that does not approve of the presence

of the wall – suggests “Elves”

His true “motives” are starting to become clearer – he wants to change the way his neighbour

thinks – WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THE WALL?

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 meNot 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.”

SIMILENeighbour = like a cavemanStone = weaponWhat is he saying about himself in comparison?

FIGURATIVE DARKNESSUnenlightenedHas not moved with the times

He is not prepared to think beyond that which he has been taught by his father – what was good enough for his father is good enough for him – poem ends with the REPETITION of his father’s words.