Summary
Highlights
Robert Frost was an American writer, known as a quintessential New England poet, who combined traditional poetic techniques with modernism. He is famous for winning four Pulitzer Prizes and reading a poem at JFK's inauguration. His poetry often explores themes such as nature, labor, social bonds, and the individual's powers and limitations.
The poem "Mending Wall" is written in blank verse with loose iambic pentameter, featuring colloquial language that mimics real speech and makes the narrator appear trustworthy. Nature is portrayed as a powerful force beyond human control, with the gaps in the wall forming silently. The word 'mend' in the title refers not only to physical repair but also to mending human relationships.
The poem uses metaphors, comparing wall rocks to loaves (sustenance) and balls (leisure), highlighting the narrator's contemplation of the wall's necessity. The narrator teases his neighbor, reflecting mischief. Metaphors of pine trees and an apple orchard represent the neighbor's desire for solitude and the narrator's potential threat. The famous line, "Good fences make good neighbors," is ironic, as fences separate rather than unite, yet the act of mending brings the neighbors together.
The narrator questions the wall's purpose, humorously suggesting elves caused the gaps, showing a desire for connection. The neighbor is compared to an "Old Stone Savage armed," symbolizing a natural human instinct for self-preservation and competition. The neighbor's movement in "darkness" can mean both literal lack of light and figurative ignorance. The neighbor's repeated affirmation of "Good fences make good neighbors" shows his stubborn adherence to the wall's necessity.
The poem's structure is blank verse in rough iambic pentameter, using full sentences. The characters are a curious narrator seeking connection and a stubborn neighbor valuing privacy. Key symbols include the wall (borders, suspicion), pine trees (peace), apples (threats), and elves (imagination). The tone shifts from playful to disappointed. Themes include the choice between defense and connection, the difficulty of unlearning prejudices, the waning of camaraderie in adulthood, and nature's ungovernable power.