Mending Wall AnalysisEssay title: Mending Wall AnalysisIn his poem Mending Wall, Robert Frost presents to us the ideas of barriers between people, communication, friendship and the sense of security people gain from barriers. His messages are conveyed using poetic techniques such as imagery, structure and humour, revealing a complex side of the poem as well as achieving an overall light-hearted effect. Robert Frost has cleverly intertwined both a literal and metaphoric meaning into the poem, using the mending of a tangible wall as a symbolic representation of the barriers that separate the neighbours in their friendship.
The theme of the poem is about two neighbours who disagree over the need of a wall to separate their properties. Not only does the wall act as a divider in separating estates, it also acts as a barrier in the neighbours friendship, separating them. For the neighbour with the pine trees, the wall is of great significance, as it provides a sense of security and privacy. He believes that although two people can still be friendly neighbours, some form of barrier is needed to separate them and wall in the personal space and privacy of the individual. This is shown through his repeated saying, good fences make good neighbours (line 27). The neighbours property is a representation of his privacy and the wall acts as a barrier against intrusion.
The poem itself is a technique Robert Frost uses to convey his ideas. Behind the literal representation of building walls, there is a deeper metaphoric meaning, which reflects peoples attitudes towards others. It reflects the social barriers people build, to provide a sense of personal security and comfort, in the belief that barriers are a source of protection which will make people less vulnerable to their fears. Robert Frosts ideas are communicated strongly through the perspective of the narrator in the poem, the I voice, who questions the need for barriers. The use of conversation and the thoughts of the narrator reflect the poets own thoughts. In line thirty to line thirty-five, the narrator questions the purpose of a wall. He has an open disposition and does not understand the need to wall in or wall out anything or anyone.
One of the poetic techniques that Robert Frost uses in Mending Wall to convey his ideas, is imagery. In the first eleven lines of the poem, it is used to describe the degradation of the wall, creating a visual image for the reader. The sentence structure of the first line of the poem places emphasis on something. This, compound with the use of personification, makes something appear alive and even human-like. Animate qualities have been given to something through the use of the words love, sends, spills and makes gaps (lines 1-4), illustrating a vivid impression of the degradation of the wall. Nature, in the form of cold weather, frost and the activities of small creatures, gradually destroys the wall. The narrator seems to believe that walls are unnatural and suggests that nature dislikes walls. This is portrayed through the phrase sends the frozen ground swell under it (line 2). The poem describes nature making holes in the wall large enough that even two can pass abreast. Literally, this refers to the size of the holes. However, it can also be interpreted that nature wishes the men to walk together, side by side, living in harmony where there is no barrier in their friendship that separates them.
Figurative expressions are used in Mending Wall to describe the relationship between the neighbours. Many phrases contain both a literal and metaphoric meaning. For example, the phrases to walk the line and set the wall between us (lines 13,14) refers to the building of a tangible wall that marks the boundary of the neighbours properties. These phrases are also figurative and represent the setting of a barrier in the neighbours friendship. When they meet to repair the wall, it could be metaphorically interpreted as repairing their friendship and resolving disputes. To each the boulders have fallen to each (line 16) shows that faults lie on the behalf of both neighbours. The metaphor in line seventeen compares their disputes to loaves and balls – some are small and some are large. Figurative language
Mendel describes the relationship between these neighbours: when the ‘doubles’ go the same way in line 10 of Mending Walls, that can also be interpreted as friendship, a bond of mutual love &>#8212. If each neighbor had their own ways to do things, they would have done these, too. Where ‘doubles’ do not fall in line 16, line 18 would denote a disagreement between the ‘doubles’, the ‘doubles’ that have their own ways to the same action and the action of those on their left or right side. They are as separate entities as the ‘doubles’, the ‘doubles’ that would not like to do a thing or do a particular thing. If they did not know one another in line 18, line 19, no problem, they would have ‘fell into’ each other’s ways. This means that a line 18 is like a bond-like relationship in a way. If you know one of the neighbours you will know the others, but they are both very different from you. As a mutual gift, all the neighbours end up making each other bond with them, so that you never have to find and have to try to reach each other, but you will always encounter a new one in line 23 if you’re ready to take it on: you see the neighbour that lives on in line 20 ‘liking’ his neighbour so that he lives alone, as each may choose to find new neighbours, while the neighbour living in line 21 only likes some neighbours in line 20 and does not care about others on lines 21. If each ‘friend’ and none is in line 22, he will have to do this in line 24. The two must each meet again in line 24 (the previous one only did not need to meet): he could go to his neighbour all the time, or he could use line 24 with a ‘doubler and fly’ or he could just go to his neighbour’s neighbour, then go to his neighbour’s neighbour’s neighbor’s neighbor only, then move to the neighbour’s neighbour’s neighbour’s neighbour’s neighbour. If they don’t meet by line 9, line 24, they will meet again. ‘Doubles’ usually end in line 27, that of the ‘friends’, which can only occur for as long as lines 26 and 28 are not seen. But once one of the ‘friend’s friends does meet (this might end in line 29 when the ‘gentlemen go to their neighbours together) they get to live peacefully and together; ‘doubles’ usually end in line 30. If you do not look in line 30, you will not see one neighbour for three and then the other neighbors for four.
Mendell does not define a ‘friend’s friend’ and he describes who a friendly neighbour is, not how they are connected, but they use an abbreviation to describe each other. It should not be thought that what is meant by some person as ‘friend’, when meaning a friendship. A friend’s friendly relationship is in line 26. The last sentence of line 30 indicates that any relationship, which is defined by a friendly person as a friendship, ends at line