Mending Wall

A detailed Summary of Mending Wall


It is arguable that the self-righteous speaker of "Mending Wall" is himself obsessively committed to wall building, far more intractably and instinctively committed than his cliche-bound neighbor. While the speaker of "Mending Wall" justifiably castigates his unthinking neighbor and is himself far more aware of the powers of language for good and for ill, he is nonetheless caught up, ironically perhaps, in the same actual task, wall building, which will have the same results and look no different from his neighbor's contribution despite the narrative he brings to it. There are several possibilities for irony here, depending on the level of Frost's self-awareness. Wall imagery pervades his poetry, as a conscious poetic image and as a psychosexual marker of control and limitation. That the speaker is the one who calls the neighbor to mend the wall is vitally important, then, but it is not clear that Frost meant for the speaker to be ironically perceived as a hypocrite. The simple explanation, that the speaker acts out of a sense of inevitability, knowing his neighbor's habits, seems hardly enough given the contextual symbolism of the wall in Frost's poetry; the psychological explanation attendant


(lang./tone) The living part of the poem is the intonation for it is only here for those who have heard it before. It is the most volatile and at the same time important part of any poem.

One way you can read Mending Wall by Robert Frost is that it is about a man who

"Mending wall" is a symbolic poem. If you do not look out, the poem might seem as a poem about repairing fences. If you take the time to read it twice, the theme of the poem is easily understood and very moving.

persona created by Gray doesn't seem to believe there is a use for the wall as

(language/tone) Frost makes much of tone and depends upon the sound of the voice-tone to communicate the emphasis of the poem, such as the 'oh' and the hyphen in 'old-stone savage'. If you've ever heard a reading by Frost of Mending Wall you would notice that he stresses these lines, as well as "I'd rather he said it for himself". The tone of Mending Wall is an important factor in understanding the poem. Within these simple, yet complex lines Frost has incorporated the tone of remininces, reflection, sarcasm and irony.



Some common words found in the essay are:
Mending Wall, Robert Frost, Frost Firstly, Nature Frost's, mending wall, robert frost, fences neighbors, apple orchard, apple trees, walk line, Wall Robert, Fe Frost, wall robert frost, wall neighbour, pine apple, wear fingers, outdoor game, pine apple orchard, mending wall robert, read deeper poem, deeper poem meanings,

Approximate Word count = 2948
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)

join now Save Paper



Saved Paper

Save your papers so you can locate them quickly!

Newest Essays

Testimonials

  • "Thank You So Much!!! You have saved me once again!!!"
    Jack M.
  • "With so many papers to chose from, I was able to get ideas to help me with all of my classes. Thank You!"
    Brian P.
  • "I've used this site for the last 3 years to help me come up with ideas for my papers."
    Sara J.
  • "I use this site every week to help me write my own papers!"
    Rachel W.
  • "I love this site!!!"
    Marie N.