10 Min Job On Robert Frost Mending Wall

10 Min Job On Robert Frost Mending Wall

One way you can read Mending Wall by Robert Frost is that it is about a man who rebuilds the wall seperating his property from his neighbour’s. This man, this persona created by Gray doesn’t seem to believe there is a use for the wall as “he [the neighbour] is all pine and I [the persona] am apple orchard” but his neighbour believes that “good fences make good neighbours”. The persona tries to change his neighbour’s opinion by trying to “put a notion in his head” but his neighbour seems to just ignore him. So the persona gets annoyed and thinks of him as an “old-stone savage”. This is a very simple situation which we can all relate to. But, if we read deeper into the poem we may find the meanings that Robert Frost wanted us to see. Firstly, as we know that this persona is against the building of walls where not necessary we find that it is this persona that initiates the re-building of the wall “I let my neighbour know beyond the hill”. This gives the reader something to think about – it puts questions in the reader’s mind as to why he would initiate this if he doesn’t think it’s necessary. One reason may be that this persona enjoys the company of his neighbour – but he gets frustrated with him. Maybe this persona is a lonely person and any company is good company – they “meet to walk the line”. Maybe through mending the wall between them they are mending their friendship. These are all viable options and as we read further into the poem we may understand to a greater extent why he does this. When the two start building the wall the reader may notice that words such as “we” and “our” are used giving the feeling of cooperation and companionship. The persona once calls this task an “outdoor game” which connotes feelings of enjoyment, cooperation, competition. The fact that they walk “the line” “one on a side” gives a visual image in the readers mind and may remind them of a tennis game.

I must emphasize that what is being told in the poem is from the persona’s point of view – not directly Frost’s – so the reader must beware and realise that it is possible that the persona is wrong in some of his comments. “There where it is we do not need the wall” – this comment being straight to the point makes the reader feel as if the persona is denying the fact that it is the wall that brings the two men together to cooperate with one another and to converse with one another (to a certain extent). The line directly after this comment segregates the two from one another by contrasting the type of people they are with each other. “he is all pine and I am all apple orchard” – the fact that this statement comes directly after the comment on the uselessness of the wall suggests that it is these kind of attitudes that puts a barrier between people thus segregating them from one another. Personification of the persona’s apple trees is used to explain to the reader just how much this persona undermines his neighbour. “my apple trees will never get across, and eat the cones under his pines”. Even though this comment is light-hearted and almost humorous it gives the reader the impression that the persona thinks of himself as a more intelligent person than his neighbour thus feeling that he needs to explain why the wall is unnecessary.

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