Summary and Analysis of “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost

Introduction to the Poem Mending Wall

Mending Wall, a beautiful depiction of human life in the form of poetry, is about the distances that we create, the walls that we build. The walls which overburdens us with the passage of time but we still stick to it, the wall which needs to be broken down.

The poem was published in 1914 and is set in rural England where Frost lived at that time. The poem revolves around a wall, made of stones, between the two neighbours. During summers, stones from the wall fall out for some reason. Poet and his neighbour have to mend the wall each year in spring, by putting the stones back, which are quite heavy. Frustratingly, poet suggests his neighbour to break down the wall completely, to which his neighbour does not agree, for he believes that “Good fences make good neighbours”. The poet does not understand the dark world of customs and traditions that his neighbour lives in.

Text of the Poem Mending Wall by 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 neighbour 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 neighbours.’

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

‘Why do they make good neighbours? 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 offense.

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 neighbours.’ 

Genre of the Poem Mending Wall

Mending wall is a narrative poem, as it tells the story about two neighbours and a wall between them which needs to be repaired every year. Like a narrative, there is a setting and there are characters in the poem.

Structure of the Poem Mending Wall

The poem mending wall does not follow a proper poetic form. It is a single stanza poem of forty-six lines and is written in blank verse. None of the lines rhyme with each other.

• Blank Verse

It is a form of poetry where the lines do not rhyme and it uses iambic pentameter.

• Iambic Pentameter

A metric scheme with five pairs of syllables per line. Each pair consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable.

Summary of the Poem Mending Wall

There is something that doesn’t like the wall. There is a force that swells the ground underneath the wall and it makes the stone on the top of it fall out. It creates gaps in it, huge ones, of which two people can pass easily. Apart from that force, the hunters also play part in destroying it but that is another story. Nobody has witnessed the gaps being made. Nobody knows when the gaps were made, but we see them each year in spring, when I and my neighbour over the hill have to go to mend the broken wall. We only pick the stones on our side of the wall and put it back on it. Some looks like loaves of bread, while others are as round as balls. We hope and pray that they stay on place, well balanced on the top. We ask the stones not to fall off until we are gone. Our fingers gets chafed with handling the rocks but its just an outdoor game, each on our side of the wall and nothing more.

This makes me think of why do we need a wall at all. I ask him and tell him that he has pine trees and I have apple orchards. Its not that my apples will eat his pine cones but he says that, “Good fences make good neighbours”. Spring season has made me a little mischievous and I want my neighbour to think over it that why do we need a wall at all. Don’t we build walls when we want to protect our fields from the cows? But there are no cows here. If I am building a wall, I should know what am I protecting, whom am I protecting it from and who would most likely to get offended by it. There is some force that doesn’t like the wall, probably the elves but no its not the elves. Nevertheless, I should leave him to think over it on his own. I can see him lifting rocks, grasping it firmly in his hands from the top, like an ancient warrior. I can see him moving in darkness, its not the darkness of woods and shadowy trees but it is the darkness of the old customs and traditions that he is stuck in. He is not ready to live beyond his set ideas about the world. And there, while mending the wall he repeats “Good fences make good neighbours”.

Themes of the Poem Mending Wall

There is one consistent theme that can be seen in all of Robert Frost’s poems, the theme of Human limitation, which is clearly visible in mending wall too. He is known for his realistic depiction of human life in depth. The main themes of the poem Mending Wall by Robert Frost are ‘Emotional and Social Barriers”, “Man and Nature” and “Customs and Traditions”.

• Emotional and Social Barriers

The main theme of the poem mending wall is the barriers that we create to avoid interaction with other human beings, which do not benefit anyone but are rather hard to maintain, the unnecessary barriers, which restrict human beings to bond with each other, to share, care, love and communicate.

• Man and Nature

The first few lines of the poem describes how nature is not in favour of the walls and barriers between the poet and his neighbour. The first four lines of the poem;

“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.”

describes how nature is the main culprit which continues to destroy the wall.

• Customs and Traditions

The only reason that we know, due to which the neighbour is not in favour of breaking down the wall, is that he believes in the saying, ‘Good fences make good neighbours’ which has been passed on to him from his father. The poet here points at the old customs and traditions that most of us blindly follow, without thinking of the consequences, without asking questions. The poet calls his neighbour ‘old-stone savage’ who lives in the dark world of his ancestors and is not ready to move on.

Poetic Devices Used In the Poem Mending Wall

Poetic devices are used to spice up the poems and prose. They are mainly used to enhance the beauty of the written text, to give it that scope and richness which makes the readers want to read it over and over again. Robert Frost, like most of his poems, has used variety of poetic devices in this poem. We can see the use of symbolism, alliteration, repetition, imagery and metaphor in “Mending Wall”

• Symbolism

The wall itself is a symbol of gaps, distances and barriers that we create, despite of nature trying its best to bring us closer to each other and reunite us, we choose to stay away for no reason at all.

• Alliteration

Alliteration is the repetition of the first sound of closely placed words within a single line. There are many examples of alliteration in the poem, some of which are

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

• Repetition

The line ‘Good fences make good neighbours.’ is repeated in the poem which gives us an idea of why the neighbours so strongly believe in maintaining the fence.

• Imagery

Poet in the poem has used imagery to appeal to the five senses and to create images in the readers’ mind. For example in the line,

“Not of woods only and the shade of trees” the poet has appealed to our sense of sight.

• Metaphor

Metaphor is the comparison of two unlike things without using like or as. In the line, “And some are loaves and some so nearly balls” poet has compared the heavy stones of the wall with loaves of bread  balls.