Mending Wall

‘Mending Wall’: context

Let’s explore the literary and historical context of this iconic poem.

‘Mending Wall’ literary context

Robert Frost published ‘Mending Wall’ in North of Boston (1914) relatively early in his career. As with many of Frost’s poems, ‘Mending Wall’ appears simple and easy to understand on the surface, and his consistent descriptions of nature make it very pleasant to read. However, reading between the lines gradually unveils layers of depth and meaning.

‘Mending Wall’ is a conversation between neighbours with different world views. The speaker holds a modernist view of the world as he questions traditions and possesses an uncertain tone about the world around him. On the contrary, the speaker’s neighbour has quite a traditional worldview and holds tight to his father’s traditions.

Scholars have always had difficulty assigning Frost to a specific literary movement. His extensive use of natural settings and simple folk-like language has led many scholars to exclude him from the modernist movement. However, a strong case can be made for ‘Mending Wall’ being a modernist poem. The speaker’s uncertain and overly questioning tone displays modernist characteristics. The poem is infused with irony and allows the reader to reach their own conclusions, offering no definitive answers to the plethora of questions it raises.

‘Mending Wall’ historical context

Robert Frost wrote ‘Mending Wall’ at a time when technology was rapidly evolving, and America’s population was continuing to diversify during the industrial era. The need for a large labour force accelerated urbanisation throughout America. This led to conflict between people with vastly different world views. Frost was aware of this issue and ‘Mending Wall’ comments on it.

In the poem, a conversation between neighbours with opposing world views occurs while the pair is fixing a wall. This suggests that working together to improve society is a beneficial form of labour.

The poem also comments on the importance of physical borders between people in order to maintain peace. ‘Mending Wall’ was written during World War I when countries went to war over freedom and their right to maintain borders.

Fig. 1 - Robert Frost questions the need for barriers or walls between people, but also investigates the tension between isolation and connection.

‘Mending Wall’: poem

Below is the poem in full for you to read over.

‘Mending Wall’: summary

The speaker starts the poem by suggesting there’s a force opposed to the use of walls. This force seems to be mother nature as the ‘frozen ground’ causes the stones to ‘topple off’. Another ‘force’ against walls is the hunter who dismantles them to catch rabbits.

The speaker then meets with his neighbour to mend their wall together. Each of them walks on their side of the wall, and they converse while carrying out the work. The labour is intense and causes their hands to become callous.

The speaker begins to question the reason for their hard labour. He argues that they each have different types of trees, and there aren’t any cows to cause disruption, so there’s no need for a wall. The neighbour responds with the adage, ‘Good fences make good neighbours’ and says nothing more.

The speaker tries to change his neighbour’s mind. He reasons that the existence of a wall may offend someone, but he settles on his initial argument that there is a ‘force that doesn’t love a wall’. The speaker is convinced that his neighbour lives in ignorance, saying he moves in ‘deep darkness’, comparing him to an ‘old-stone savage’. The neighbour has the final word and ends the poem by repeating the adage, ‘Good fences make good neighbours’.

Fig. 2 - Frost explores the concept of barriers between countries, not just between neighbours in a rural environment.

‘Mending Wall’ form

‘Mending Wall’ is composed of a single, 46-line stanza written in blank verse. The large body of text can appear intimidating to read at first glance, but Frost’s story-like quality draws the reader deeper into the poem. The central focus of the poem is the wall, and the meaning behind it is built upon right up to the final line. This makes the use of a single stanza feel appropriate.

A common characteristic of Frost’s poetry is his use of simple vocabulary. The lack of difficult or complex words in ‘Mending Wall’ gives the poem a strong conversational element, mimicking the neighbours’ interaction.

‘Mending Wall’ speaker

The speaker of the poem is a farmer in rural New England. We know from the poem that he has an ‘apple orchard’ and has one neighbour (who we are aware of) who is a traditional farmer.

Based on the speaker’s arguments, it’s safe to assume that he is well-educated and philosophically curious. Scholars have considered that the speaker of the poem represents Frost’s personal ideas.

The contrasting worldviews between the speaker and his neighbour give a mild sense of potential conflict and tension. To some extent, the speaker looks down upon his neighbour and views him as being naive and restricted to ancient ideologies. The neighbour seems to have an unwavering and practical worldview that he inherited from past generations.

‘Mending Wall’: section analysis

Let’s break the poem down into its sections.

Lines 1–9

Frost begins the poem by pointing out a mysterious force that ‘doesn’t love a wall’. The examples that follow suggest that the mysterious force is mother nature. The brutal winter causes ‘the frozen-ground-swell under it’, resulting in gaps that allow ‘two [to] pass abreast’. Nature’s act of destruction ironically creates the possibility for two companions to ‘pass abreast’ in the form of a gap.

Frost then distinguishes hunters as another force that destroys walls. The hunter’s purpose for dismantling the wall is purely out of self-interest – they want to lure a ‘rabbit out of hiding’ to feed their ‘yelping dogs’.

Lines 10–22

The speaker comments that the gaps appear almost magically as nobody ‘has seen them made’. The idea of a mystical force that destroys walls is further developed.

The speaker then meets his neighbour to rebuild the wall together. Although this is a joint effort, the pair ‘keep the wall between’ them as they work. This small detail is important because it signifies both parties’ acknowledgement of and respect for their personal boundaries and property rights.

Another important detail to note is that they each work on ‘boulders that have fallen to each’. Although this is a collaborative effort, they only labour on their side of the wall, showing that each man takes responsibility for his own property.

The idea of a magical or mystical force is developed yet again when the speaker comments on the odd shape of the fallen boulders and how they need a ‘spell to make them balance’. The spell itself employs personification: the speaker demands that the boulders’ Stay where [they] are …’ while being aware that he’s speaking to an inanimate object.

The speaker states that the rough, manual labour wears their ‘fingers rough’. This situation could be considered ironic since the act of rebuilding the wall is slowly wearing the men down.

Lines 23–38

This section of the poem begins with the speaker expressing his curiosity about the purpose of the wall. He then gives reasons why they ‘do not need the wall’. His first reason is that he has an ‘apple orchard’, whereas his neighbour has pine trees, meaning that his apple trees will never steal the cones from the pine tree. The speaker’s perspective can be seen as potentially self-centred because he doesn’t consider that maybe his neighbour wishes to keep his garden separate to maintain his individuality.

The neighbour responds simply with the traditional adage that ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’ The speaker doesn’t seem to be satisfied with this response, and he goes on to brainstorm an explanation to change his neighbour’s mind. The speaker further argues that there aren’t any cows to cross onto each other’s property. He then considers that the existence of the wall may ‘give offence’ to someone.

The speaker goes full circle and returns to the first line of the poem, ‘Something there is that doesn’t love a wall’. It can be said the speaker isn’t convinced by his own arguments and resorts to that seemingly unexplainable force. He considers that maybe ‘elves’ are the force destroying the walls but then dismisses this idea because he wants his neighbour to see it ‘for himself’. It seems that the speaker has come to the realisation that he can’t change a persons’ perspective of the world.

Lines 39–45

In the final section of the poem, the speaker observes his neighbour working and tries to understand who he is. It seems that the speaker thinks his neighbour is ignorant and backwards as he describes him as an ‘old-stone savage’. He sees his neighbour as being in literal and metaphorical ‘darkness’ because he can’t think for himself and won’t abandon ‘his father’s saying’.

After all of the elaborate arguments presented by the speaker, the poem ends quite simply with the adage, ‘Good fences make good neighbours’.

Fig. 3 - The wall is also a metaphor for the different worldviews the speaker and the neighbour have.

‘Mending Wall’: literary devices

‘Mending Wall’ irony

‘Mending Wall’ is full of irony that makes it difficult to pin down what the poem is trying to express. Walls are usually created to separate people and protect property, but in the poem, the wall and the act of rebuilding it provide a reason for two neighbours to come together and be sociable citizens.

As the two men mend the wall, their hands wear down and become rough from handling the heavy rocks. In this case, the irony is that the act of rebuilding the wall takes its toll on them physically and wears them down.

The speaker seems to be against the existence of walls, and he gives reasons for why they aren’t needed and points to the fact that even nature destroys walls. But it’s important to note that the speaker initiated the act of rebuilding the wall by calling on his neighbour. The speaker does just as much work as his neighbour, so while his words seem conflicted, his actions are consistent.

‘Mending Wall’ symbolism

Frost’s knack for using powerful symbolism allows him to create a poem that reads effortlessly while being rich with layers of meaning.

Walls

In a literal sense, the use of fences or walls is representative of a physical boundary between properties. Landowners need fences to protect their property and maintain boundaries. The wall can also represent the boundaries that exist in human relationships. The neighbour thinks boundaries are necessary to maintain healthy relationships, while the speaker plays the devil’s advocate by questioning its value.

A supernatural or mysterious force

The speaker mentions the existence of some force that is opposed to the existence of walls. This idea is expressed in the frost that topples the walls, the use of spells to keep the wall balanced, and the suggestion that elves are secretly destroying the walls. After all his intellectual efforts, the speaker seems to return to the idea that this mysterious force is the sole reason why the walls break down.

Spring

The act of rebuilding the wall is a tradition that takes place every year at the start of spring. The season of spring is traditionally a symbol of new beginnings and a fresh start. The act of rebuilding the wall in spring can be seen as taking advantage of the favourable weather to prepare for the harsh winter.

‘Mending Wall’: examples of poetic devices

Below we discuss some of the main poetic devices used in the poem. Can you think of others?

Enjambment

Frost strategically uses this technique in parts of the poem where they are appropriate. A good example of this can be found in line 25, when the speaker is making an argument against walls.

Assonance

This technique is used with an ‘e’ sound in lines nine and ten to create a pleasant rhythm.

‘Mending Wall’: meter

‘Mending Wall’ is written in blank verse, which is traditionally a highly respected poetic form. Blank verse is probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the 16th century.¹

Blank verse is particularly suited to Frost’s poetry since it allows him to create a rhythm that closely matches spoken English. For the most part, 'Mending Wall’ is in iambic pentameter. However, Frost occasionally varies the meter to better match the natural pace of spoken English.

‘Mending Wall’: rhyme scheme

Because it’s written in blank verse, “Mending Wall’ does not have a consistent rhyme scheme. However, Frost does occasionally employ the use of rhymes to highlight sections of the poem. For example, Frost makes use of slant rhymes.

An example of a slant rhyme is with the words’ line’ and ‘again’ in lines 13 and 14.

‘Mending Wall’: themes

The central theme of ‘Mending Wall’ is about boundaries and their importance in a physical and metaphorical sense.

The poem presents arguments for and against the existence of walls through two characters who possess what seem to be opposite ideologies. The speaker raises the case against walls, stating that they cause unnecessary separation that can offend people. The neighbour stands firm in his opposing belief that walls are necessary to maintain healthy relationships.

The speaker considers humans inherently altruistic since he presents the case that walls aren’t necessary. On the other hand, the neighbour holds a slightly more cynical opinion of people, implying that walls are helpful to avoid conflicts that inevitably arise between people.

1. Jay Parini, The Wadsworth Anthology of Poetry, 2005.