1. Mending Wall
By Robert Frost

2. ROBERT FROST
President John F. Kennedy said, "He has bequeathed his nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever gain joy and understanding."

3. Robert Frost 1874 – 1963 Published his first poem in 1894
Lived in England from , published two collections while living there, with the help of Ezra Pound
1920s, most celebrated poet in America
Won many awards including 4 Pulitzer prizes
Most frequent subject is New England landscape
Believed meter was essential to poetry at a time when free verse was becoming the norm.

4. Mending Wall

5. What is it about?
"Mending Wall" is a metaphorical poem written in blank verse, published in 1914, by Robert Frost (1874– 1963).
It is set in the countryside and is about one man questioning why he and his neighbour must rebuild the stone wall dividing their farms each spring.
It is perhaps best known for the line spoken by the neighbour:
"Good fences make good neighbours."

6. The poem's narrator displays a disdain for the expression and the walls erected between people.
Yet he also shows a grudging acceptance (albeit sadly) of the line's truth in its application to human relationships.

7. “Mending Wall” 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.

8. 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.

9. 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:

10. “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.

11. 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."

12. The Poem’s Speaker A farmer, probably in New England
Participates in the yearly ritual of mending the wall between his and his neighbor’s property
Takes up a philosophic analysis of the purpose of the wall

13. The Poem’s Speaker
Initiates the mending of the wall (“I let my neighbor know beyond the hill”),
Yet recognizes that the wall is needed only in some areas, not in all (“My apple trees will never get across / And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.”)

14. The Attitude of the Poem’s Speaker toward the Poem’s Subject
The poem has two main subjects:
The wall
The speaker’s neighbor

15. The Speaker’s Attitude Towards the Wall
The speaker sees both the practicality of maintaining the wall in some places (for instance, “where there are cows”) and the impracticality of maintaining the wall where there is no physical need for it (apples and pines)
He calls the task of mending the wall a game and remarks:
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”

16. The Attitude of the Speaker Towards his Neighbor
The speaker’s playfulness suggests a fondness for his neighbor, or amusement at his neighbor’s simple-mindedness..
In response to his neighbor’s repetition of “Good fences make good neighbors,” he considers a way to make his neighbor think more deeply, saying,
“Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head: […]
I could say “Elves” to him,
But it's not elves exactly”

17. The Attitude of the Speaker Towards his Neighbor
The tone changes from playfulness to critical with the final image:
“Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.”

18. The Poem’s Organization
One long stanza
Loose blank verse
Sentence lengths vary

19. The Poem’s Organization
The poem breaks down into __ sections:
Lines 1-11: The speaker compares the two types of gaps (man-made and caused by the weather) he finds in walls.
Lines 12-22: A description of the task of mending the wall
Lines 23-27: The speaker raises the question of why a wall is needed between the pines and apply orchard and the neighbor’s only answer is that it is.

20. The Poem’s Organization
Lines 28-38: The speaker becomes more persistent in questioning why they need the wall, but he doesn’t vocalize his question, because he knows his neighbor’s answer will not change
Lines 39-45: The speaker’s view of the neighbor shifts from amused to critical, as he sees the neighbor as a simpleton who will not question lessons his father has handed him.

21. Dominant Imagery The Wall
A rough stone wall of irregularly shaped stones, typical of New England landscape, formed with odd rocks from the fields. Made to be useful, not beautiful
The Farms
We picture pastures with cows, an apple orchard, wood lots

22. Dominant Imagery The “old-stone savage armed”
Switch from more literal description to figurative
This simile transforms the poem from a narrative of a farm ritual to a greater statement about humankind
The farmer becomes representative of close-minded, provincial people who are unwilling to consider a new outlook

23. Diction and Syntax Simple, concrete language
Syntax is simple and conversational with the exception of the first line, which is repeated in line 35:
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”
As opposed to the standard:
There is something that doesn’t love a wall
OR, more simply:
Something doesn’t love a wall

24. Syntax “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”
Inverted subject/verb order gives the line an old-fashioned feel
The outdated manner of speech suggests a sort of ancient wisdom (think Yoda), a lesson learned from nature which resists, and has always resisted, walls

25. Conclusions
“Mending Wall” is a poem that resists a literal reading. What begins as a simple poem about farm life becomes a criticism of all people whose perspectives are limited and who do not question the lessons the previous generation has handed down.

26. Conclusions The poem’s title should not be overlooked:
Before reading the poem, the grammar of the title leads us to expect that the wall performs an action of “mending,” perhaps the relationships between people, or the unity of whatever is kept inside the wall, but we learn that in fact by mending the wall, it is divisions that are being mended.