Mending Wall Robert Frost

2. Mending Wall
Robert Frost

3. 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.

4. 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?

5. 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.”

7. 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

8. “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

9. 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

10. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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”?

19. 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?

20. 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.”
SIMILE
Neighbour = like a caveman
Stone = weapon
What is he saying about himself in comparison?
FIGURATIVE
DARKNESS
Unenlightened
Has 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.