mending wall

A detailed Summary of mending wall

"Mending Wall" by Robert Frost is a poem in which vocabulary, rhythm and other aspects of poetic technique combine in a fashion that articulates the experience and the opposing convictions that the poem describes and discusses. The ordinariness of the rural activity of "mending wall" is presented in specific terms, yet this mending has a much larger connotation. The poem works on two levels of realism and metaphor, with a balance as poised as the act of mending the wall itself.

Perhaps one of the reasons that Frost remains one the best known and best loved American poets is that his themes are universal and attractive. They offer the reader affirmative resolutions for the conflicts dramatized in his poetry. Readers, whether young or old, waging their own struggles against the constant threat of chaos in their life, find comfort and encouragement in many of Frost's lines which are so cherished that they have become familiar quotations; such as "Good fences make good neighbors."

The tone of " Mending Wall" is an important factor in understanding the poem. With these simple, yet complex lines Frost has created tones of reflection, and irony. Much of the appeal of "Mending Wall" can be attributed to Frost's use of language a

The poem is about our natural tendency to build walls, to wall out neighbors, to defend ourselves from others, to want privacy and our 'space'. And then nation-to-nation we do the same by creating boundaries. We create imaginary borders to identify our tribe and we defend it. "But something there is that doesn't love a wall" that wants it down. We do that. For brief moments in time we take down the walls we've built around ourselves, we work, not at defending ourselves, but at allowing others to get close to us, to see inside of us only to start building the walls again. "Mending Wall" has all three levels: it is about a particular thing - a wall. It is about Frost's feeling about walls and it's universal because it speaks to the way we all think and behave. That's part of what makes this poem universally acceptable and enjoyable. Frost has described all of mankind.

Frost's style in "Mending Wall" is plain, direct, and conversational. It is simple on the surface but there's an obscurity and a depth that the reader can't quite get inside of. Frost's use iambic pentameter in "Mending Wall". He makes the poem sound very much like spoken English. By doing this the words flow very smoothly. This smooth flow allows readers to understand the message of the poem. In this poem the underlying message is that the reason people build walls, tangible or not, is to keep themselves from getting hurt. But as in the case of the speaker and his neighbor in the poem, the

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 995
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels