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{{Short description|1914 poem by Robert Frost}} |
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<!-- DO NOT PUT THE POEM ITSELF INTO THIS PAGE! Wikipedia is not the place for primary source material. Add it to Wikimedia if it is not there already--> |
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{{Wikisource|Mending Wall}} |
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| ⚫ | "'''Mending Wall'''" is a |
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{{Infobox poem |
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| ⚫ | Like many of the poems in ''[[North of Boston]]'', "Mending Wall" narrates a story drawn from rural New England.<ref>{{cite web|title=Robert Frost's "Mending Wall": A Marriage of Poetic Form and Content|url=http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/robert-frosts-mending-wall-marriage-poetic-form-and-content#sect-introduction|website=EDSITEment |publisher=National Endowment for the Humanities|accessdate=5 May 2015}}</ref> The narrator, a New England farmer, contacts his neighbor in the spring to rebuild the stone wall between their two farms. As the men work, the narrator questions the purpose of a wall "where it is we do not need the wall" (23). He notes twice in the poem that "something there is that doesn’t love a wall" (1, 35), but his neighbor replies twice with the proverb, "Good fences make good neighbors" (27, 45). |
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| name = Mending Wall |
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| image = Mendingwall.JPG |
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| author = [[Robert Frost]] |
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| written = |
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| first = ''[[North of Boston]]'' |
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| country = England |
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| language = English |
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| publisher = [[David Nutt (publisher)|David Nutt]] |
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| publication_date = 1914 |
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| preceded_by = |
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| wikisource = North of Boston/Mending Wall |
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}} |
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| ⚫ | "'''Mending Wall'''" is a poem by [[Robert Frost]]. It opens Robert's second collection of poetry, ''[[North of Boston]]'',<ref name="monteiro123">{{cite book|last1=Monteiro|first1=George|title=Robert Frost & the New England renaissance|url=https://archive.org/details/robertfrostnewen0000mont|url-access=registration|date=1988|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington, Ky|isbn=0-8131-1649-X|page=[https://archive.org/details/robertfrostnewen0000mont/page/123 123]}}</ref> published in 1914 by [[David Nutt (publisher)|David Nutt]], and has become "one of the most anthologized and analyzed poems in modern literature".<ref>{{cite SSRN|last1=Freeman|first1=Margaret H.|title=The Fall of the Wall between Literary Studies and Linguistics: Cognitive Poetics|ssrn=1427373|ref=Freeman MH}}</ref> |
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| ⚫ | Noted philosopher and politician [[Onora O'Neill]] uses the poem to preface her |
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== Background == |
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| ⚫ | Like many of the poems in ''[[North of Boston]]'', "Mending Wall" narrates a story drawn from rural [[New England]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Robert Frost's "Mending Wall": A Marriage of Poetic Form and Content|url=http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/robert-frosts-mending-wall-marriage-poetic-form-and-content#sect-introduction|website=EDSITEment |publisher=National Endowment for the Humanities|accessdate=5 May 2015}}</ref> The narrator, a New England farmer, contacts his neighbor in the spring to rebuild the [[stone wall]] between their two farms. As the men work, the narrator questions the purpose of a wall "where it is we do not need the wall" (23). He notes twice in the poem that "something there is that doesn’t love a wall" (1, 35), but his neighbor replies twice with the proverb, "Good fences make good neighbors" (27, 45). |
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Despite its simple, almost folksy language, "Mending Wall" is a complex poem with several themes, beginning with human fellowship, which Frost first dealt with in his poem "A Tuft of Flowers" in his first collection of poems, ''[[A Boy's Will]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Monteiro|first1=George|title=Robert Frost & the New England renaissance|date=1988|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington, Ky|isbn=0-8131-1649-X|page=123}}</ref> Unlike the earlier poem which explores the bond between men, "Mending Wall" deals with the distances and tensions between men.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Monteiro|first1=George|title=Robert Frost & the New England renaissance|date=1988|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington, Ky|isbn=0-8131-1649-X|page=127}}</ref> The poem explores the contradictions in life and humanity, including the contradictions within each person, as man "makes boundaries and he breaks boundaries".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Holland|first1=Norman|title=The brain of Robert Frost|date=1988|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=0415900239}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sheikhzadeh|first1=Ebrahim|last2=Ouladian|first2=Masoumeh|last3=Adi|first3=Ida Rochani|title=American Humor in Promoting the Talk over the Wall with a Focus on Robert Frost's Poems|journal=International Journal of Social Sciences|date=2013|volume=3|issue=2|page=60|url=http://ijss.srbiau.ac.ir/article_3181_664.html|accessdate=5 May 2015}}</ref> The poem also explores the role of boundaries in human society as mending the wall serves both to separate and to join the two neighbors, another contradiction.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Monteiro|first1=George|title=Robert Frost & the New England renaissance|date=1988|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington, Ky|isbn=0-8131-1649-X|pages=127–129}}</ref> "Mending Wall" also plays with the theme of seasons as recurring cycles in life, and contrasts those cycles with both physical and language parallelism as the men walk along the wall, each to a side, and their language stays each to a side.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Holland|first1=Norman|title=The brain of Robert Frost|date=1988|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=0415900239}}</ref> Then, in "Mending Wall", Frost meditates on the role of language as a kind of wall that both joins and separates people.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Monteiro|first1=George|title=Robert Frost & the New England renaissance|date=1988|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington, Ky|isbn=0-8131-1649-X|page=127}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Holland|first1=Norman|title=The brain of Robert Frost|date=1988|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=0415900239}}</ref> Finally, Frost explores the theme of mischief and humor in "Mending Wall", as the narrator says halfway through the poem, "Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder/If I could put a notion in his head" (28,29). Mending the wall is a game for the narrator, though in contrast, the neighbor seems quite serious about the work. The narrator notes how the neighbor seems to be walking not only in the thick shade of woods and trees, but in actual "darkness", implying ignorance and/or inhospitable sentiments.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Monteiro|first1=George|title=Robert Frost & the New England renaissance|date=1988|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington, Ky|isbn=0-8131-1649-X|page=127}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Holland|first1=Norman|title=The brain of Robert Frost|date=1988|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=0415900239}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Sheikhzadeh|first1=Ebrahim|last2=Ouladian|first2=Masoumeh|last3=Adi|first3=Ida Rochani|title=American Humor in Promoting the Talk over the Wall with a Focus on Robert Frost's Poems|journal=International Journal of Social Sciences|date=2013|volume=3|issue=2|pages=51–70|url=http://ijss.srbiau.ac.ir/article_3181_664.html|accessdate=5 May 2015}}</ref> |
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== Themes == |
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Mending Wall is a true Robert Frost poem which analyses the nature of human relationship. The title itself suggests what the poem is all about. On the one hand it is also about mending human relationship. Throughout the poem, the wall functions as a metaphor, indicating the need for friendship and separation between human beings. |
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Despite its simple, almost folksy, language, "Mending Wall" is a complex poem with several themes, beginning with human fellowship, which Frost first dealt with in his poem "The Tuft of Flowers" in his first collection of poems, ''[[A Boy's Will]]''.<ref name="monteiro123" /> |
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Unlike the earlier poem, which explores the bond between men, "Mending Wall" deals with the distances and tensions between men.<ref name="monteiro127">{{cite book|last1=Monteiro|first1=George|title=Robert Frost & the New England renaissance|url=https://archive.org/details/robertfrostnewen0000mont|url-access=registration|date=1988|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington, Ky|isbn=0-8131-1649-X|page=[https://archive.org/details/robertfrostnewen0000mont/page/127 127]}}</ref> The poem considers the contradictions in life and humanity, including the contradictions within each person, as man "makes boundaries and he breaks boundaries".<ref name="Holland">{{cite book|last1=Holland|first1=Norman|title=The brain of Robert Frost|url=https://archive.org/details/brainofrobertfro0000holl|url-access=registration|date=1988|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=0-415-90023-9}}</ref> It also examines the role of boundaries in human society, as mending the wall serves both to separate and to join the two neighbors, another contradiction.<ref name="monteiro127-129">{{cite book|last1=Monteiro|first1=George|title=Robert Frost & the New England renaissance|url=https://archive.org/details/robertfrostnewen0000mont|url-access=registration|date=1988|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|location=Lexington, Ky|isbn=0-8131-1649-X|pages=[https://archive.org/details/robertfrostnewen0000mont/page/127 127–129]}}</ref> |
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The poem begins in an arresting dramatic way, talking the reader to the nature of things. The narrator says that there something in nature that doesn't love a wall. All man-made walls are eventually destroyed, either by nature or by the work of humans. So when the spring comes, he informs his neighbor and they begin to mend the wall that separates their properties. |
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"Mending Wall" also plays with the theme of seasons as recurring cycles in life, and contrasts those cycles with both physical and language parallelism as the men walk along the wall, each to a side, and their language stays each to a side.<ref name="Holland" /> Frost further meditates on the role of language as a kind of wall that both joins and separates people.<ref name="monteiro127" /><ref name="Holland" /> |
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During this mending, the narrator thinks of the utter foolishness of this activity. In fact there is no need of a |
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wall between them. He has only apple trees and his neighbor has pine. His apple trees would never cross the border and eat up the pine cones. Moreover, they do not have cows. So there is no possibility of causing offence to the other. |
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Finally, Frost explores the theme of mischief and humor, as the narrator says halfway through the poem, "Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder/If I could put a notion in his head" (28, 29). Mending the wall is a game for the narrator but in contrast, the neighbor seems quite serious about the work. The narrator notes how the neighbor seems to be walking not only in the thick shade of woods and trees but in actual "darkness", implying ignorance or inhospitable sentiments or both.<ref name="monteiro127" /><ref name="Holland" /> |
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The narrator wants to put this notion to his neighbor's head. But like stone-headed savage, he only repeats his father's saying, "Good fences make good neighbors." |
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== |
== Usage == |
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| ⚫ | Noted philosopher and politician [[Onora O'Neill]] uses the poem to preface her book ''Justice Across Boundaries: Whose Obligations?'' (2016).<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Neill |first=Onora |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VaqzCwAAQBAJ |title=Justice across Boundaries: Whose Obligations? |date=2016-02-15 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-316-49547-6 |language=en}}</ref> |
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== References == |
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{{reflist}} |
{{reflist}} |
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==External links== |
== External links == |
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{{Wikiquote|Robert Frost}} |
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{{Portal|Poetry}} |
{{Portal|Poetry}} |
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*[https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/mending-wall "Mending Wall" at Poets.org] |
* [https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/mending-wall "Mending Wall" at Poets.org] |
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* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190518123141/https://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/wall.htm |title=Discussion and analysis of "Mending Wall"}} |
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{{Robert Frost}} |
{{Robert Frost}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mending Wall}} |
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[[Category:1914 poems]] |
[[Category:1914 poems]] |
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[[Category:American poems]] |
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[[Category:Poems in English]] |
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[[Category:Modernist poems]] |
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[[Category:Public domain poems]] |
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Latest revision as of 04:04, 18 October 2024
| Mending Wall | |
|---|---|
| by Robert Frost | |
 The stone wall at Frost's farm in Derry, New Hampshire, which he describes in "Mending Wall" | |
| First published in | North of Boston |
| Country | England |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | David Nutt |
| Publication date | 1914 |
| Full text | |
 North of Boston/Mending Wall at Wikisource | |
"Mending Wall" is a poem by Robert Frost. It opens Robert's second collection of poetry, North of Boston,[1] published in 1914 by David Nutt, and has become "one of the most anthologized and analyzed poems in modern literature".[2]
Background
[edit]Like many of the poems in North of Boston, "Mending Wall" narrates a story drawn from rural New England.[3] The narrator, a New England farmer, contacts his neighbor in the spring to rebuild the stone wall between their two farms. As the men work, the narrator questions the purpose of a wall "where it is we do not need the wall" (23). He notes twice in the poem that "something there is that doesn’t love a wall" (1, 35), but his neighbor replies twice with the proverb, "Good fences make good neighbors" (27, 45).
Themes
[edit]Despite its simple, almost folksy, language, "Mending Wall" is a complex poem with several themes, beginning with human fellowship, which Frost first dealt with in his poem "The Tuft of Flowers" in his first collection of poems, A Boy's Will.[1]
Unlike the earlier poem, which explores the bond between men, "Mending Wall" deals with the distances and tensions between men.[4] The poem considers the contradictions in life and humanity, including the contradictions within each person, as man "makes boundaries and he breaks boundaries".[5] It also examines the role of boundaries in human society, as mending the wall serves both to separate and to join the two neighbors, another contradiction.[6]
"Mending Wall" also plays with the theme of seasons as recurring cycles in life, and contrasts those cycles with both physical and language parallelism as the men walk along the wall, each to a side, and their language stays each to a side.[5] Frost further meditates on the role of language as a kind of wall that both joins and separates people.[4][5]
Finally, Frost explores the theme of mischief and humor, as the narrator says halfway through the poem, "Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder/If I could put a notion in his head" (28, 29). Mending the wall is a game for the narrator but in contrast, the neighbor seems quite serious about the work. The narrator notes how the neighbor seems to be walking not only in the thick shade of woods and trees but in actual "darkness", implying ignorance or inhospitable sentiments or both.[4][5]
Usage
[edit]Noted philosopher and politician Onora O'Neill uses the poem to preface her book Justice Across Boundaries: Whose Obligations? (2016).[7]
References
[edit]- ^ a b Monteiro, George (1988). Robert Frost & the New England renaissance. Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky. p. 123. ISBN 0-8131-1649-X.
- ^ Freeman, Margaret H. "The Fall of the Wall between Literary Studies and Linguistics: Cognitive Poetics". SSRN 1427373.
- ^ "Robert Frost's "Mending Wall": A Marriage of Poetic Form and Content". EDSITEment. National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
- ^ a b c Monteiro, George (1988). Robert Frost & the New England renaissance. Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky. p. 127. ISBN 0-8131-1649-X.
- ^ a b c d Holland, Norman (1988). The brain of Robert Frost. New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-90023-9.
- ^ Monteiro, George (1988). Robert Frost & the New England renaissance. Lexington, Ky: University Press of Kentucky. pp. 127–129. ISBN 0-8131-1649-X.
- ^ O'Neill, Onora (2016-02-15). Justice across Boundaries: Whose Obligations?. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-316-49547-6.
External links
[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to Robert Frost.
- "Mending Wall" at Poets.org
- Discussion and analysis of "Mending Wall" at the Wayback Machine (archived 2019-05-18)