Mending Wall -- Robert Frost

Guest poem sent in by Suchitra Kumar

(Poem #730) 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 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 outdoor game, One on a side. It comes to little more: 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." -- Robert Frost

        (From the"North of Boston" collection)

[Background]

The Robert Frost Farm is in Derry, NH about an hour from Boston. It was here
that Frost used to repair an old wall with his neighbor Napoleon Guay, who
liked to say, "Good fences make good neighbors."

[Comments]

Am sending in this poem after being astonished that there are only four
poems of Robert Frost on minstrels!

Robert Frost is a favourite of mine for the air of mystery and
(almost) melancholy that surrounds his poetry. I read "Mending Wall" when I
was at school and did not understand most of it. But I liked the line
"Something there is that does not love a wall" - it sounded so strange and
beautiful.

Now I like the poem for its "mischievous" manner - its as if Frost is making
fun of both his neighbour and the reader. His neighbour is shown to be a
conservative (ignorant?) farmer who does things in a certain way *because
they have always been done that way*. The lines "If I could put a notion in
his head", and the reference to "elves" show the playful thoughts of Frost.
At the same time he seems to be saying that the same wall that keeps them
apart also brings them together. Though he mocks his neighbour ("he moves
in darkness"), I also think Frost has a deep affection for him. Similarly
all of Frost's poems show a love for us readers, as if he likes to indulge
us our tendency to discover what a poem *really means*.

Critiques of "Mending Wall" abound on the Internet. Some suggest that the
poem represents man's quest to connect with nature, and mankind itself - the
walls that separate people,etc. But I think all Frost's poems are best
enjoyed without interpretation. I like the simple language and the way it
can be read on a surface level with hints of deeper, perhaps darker meanings
hiding around the corner. It seems so much more fun that way.

{Favourite, chuckle-worthy lines]

"To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls"

"My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him."

[Critique]

There's are lengthy critiques of "Mending Wall" at
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/wall.htm

[Biographies]
http://www.bartleby.com/65/fr/Frost-Ro.html
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/8/0,5716,,00.html

- Suchitra