April is National Poetry Month. In honor of National Poetry Month, I’d like to present a critical analysis of Robert Frost’s Mending Wall. I know that many people say that Frost’s poems are either trite or too over analyzed, but I personally love many of Frost’s poems. The first Robert Frost poem I ever read was Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. I was in the third grade and I had to memorize the poem. I didn’t do well, but I got another chance and did better. I’ve since been able to recite that poem over the years. One of my friends is also a fan of Frost and this meant that a friend that we both have would hear about the discussions, too.
At one point, this mutual friend, who knew my Frost loving friend before I did and only let me chat with him, did not want me to meet him at all. She argued that Robert Frost was saying that people really did need walls in order to be good neighbors to try to make a point that I should not meet my Frost loving friend. However, I argued that he was saying walls and fences should not be in our way and that the way they really make good neighbors is that we talk when we are along the wall or the fence.
Frost starts the poem by saying, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” With this first sentence, it is obvious that Frost is not a fan of walls. He says “that doesn’t love.” Then there is the obvious play with the word frost and winter weather and his last name being Frost showing how it ruins the wall. This seems to say that he would prefer to not have a wall.
However, there are things that ruin the wall, which are chronicled in the middle of the poem. Then he and his neighbor both must fix the wall. Frost writes of how each person is on his side and of how each man is different. He points out that each man is different by calling his neighbor “all pine” and himself “apple orchard.”
Frost tries to talk to his neighbor, but the neighbor only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.” The neighbor is quite mysterious to Frost. He seems to want more than just this outdoor game, as he calls it. Frost even wishes he could ask his neighbor why fences make good neighbors, but he can’t, because his neighbor won’t answer. He wants to talk to his neighbor, but even at the end, the only thing that his neighbor says is, “Good fences make good neighbors.
It seems quite obvious that Frost is saying that people need to tear down any “fences” between them. This is the way to make good friends, good neighbors, and connect with the world. Yet, there are those people who will purposely close themselves away or try to keep others away. Frost does wish that this were not the case, though. He is not the one that says, “Good fences make good neighbors,” and if he did say such a thing, he would say it as something where neighbors would stand across from each other at their fences and talk to each other – not be pleased about them being kept apart.
Frost, Robert. Mending Wall. Bartleby.com
“An Analysis of Robert Frost’s Mending Wall.” 123HelpMe.com. 17 Mar 2009
