An Analysis of Mending Wall Essay - 2101 Words

An Analysis of Mending Wall Robert Frost once said that Mending Wall was a poem that was spoiled by being applied. What did he mean by applied? Any poem is damaged by being misunderstood, but thats the risk all poems run. What Frost objects to, I think, is a reduction and distortion of the poem through practical use. When President John F. Kennedy inspected the Berlin Wall he quoted the poems first line: Something there is that doesnt love a wall. His audience knew what he meant and how the quotation applied. And on the other side of that particular wall, we can find another example of how the poem has been used. Returning from a visit to Russia late in his life, Frost said, The Russians reprinted Mending Wall over there,†¦show more content†¦Why doesnt Frost want to say what he meant? When asked, hed reply, What do you want me to do, say it again in different and less good words? You get more credit for thinking, Frost wrote in a letter, if you restate formulae or cite cases that fall in easily under formulae, but all the fun is outside: saying things that suggest formulae that wont formulate--that almost but dont quite formulate. The formula is the easy answer that turns out to be, if right or wrong in general, certainly inadequate in particular. The formula, like a paraphrase of the poem itself, is made of those less good words the poet has tried to resist. Mending Wall seems to present us with a problem, and appears to urge us to choose up sides. I suspect most readers are eager to ally themselves with the speaker, to consider the neighbor dim-witted, block-headed, and generally dull. Such a reading is nicely represented by the following passage from a booklet on Robert Frost put out by Monarch Notes: By the end of the poem [the wall] has become a symbol, and the two farmers have turned into allegorical figures representing opposing views of freedom and confinement, reason and rigidity of mind, tolerance and violence, civilization and savagery.... There is no mistaking the poets meaning, or his attitude toward what the wall represents ... itShow MoreRelatedPoem Analysis of Mending Wall1121 Words   |  5 PagesProfessor ****** Poem Analysis Mending Wall I chose this poem because the wall reminds me of my personal struggles with other people. When people annoy or bother me I instantly put up an imaginary wall between me and that person. They ask me to stop ignoring them and I just shrug their request, just like in this poem. I decide that the wall between us is better up than down because I was afraid of getting mad and saying things that I would regret later on. Mending Wall, by Robert Frost portraysRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem Mending Wall 821 Words   |  4 PagesFenil Patel Composition II Prof: Jon Anderson September 19, 201 â€Å"Mending Wall† a poem by Robert Frost seems to take place in countryside estate. Main theme in the poem is, whether the wall is necessary to have the good relation between neighbors. Narrator seems to think the wall is not so necessary as it separates him and his neighbor. However, he does find talking to his neighbor about the wall. but does provide a sense of privacy which is not bad. Frost is separating habit and and traditionRead MoreAnalysis Of Robert Frost s The Mending Wall 1311 Words   |  6 PagesIn Robert Frost the Mending Wall it is about the obligation of boundaries and the deceiving influences employed to abolish them. The poem shows how two individuals have different opinions on a wall that divides their properties. As the poem goes on, one would think that there is a connection between the two, through the rebuilding of the wall every spring. Richard Cory and Miniver Cheevy have many similarities as well as differences, on one hand you have a rich and d epressed individual that is admiredRead MoreAnalysis of Mending Wall by Robert Frost Essay670 Words   |  3 PagesAnalysis of Mending Wall by Robert Frost Robert Frost is describing a process in Mending Wall, which is repairing a wall that separates his territory and his neighbors. The wall was deteriorated during the winter, when the cold frost created cracks and gaps in the wall. He uses a nearly infantile imagination to unravel the mystery of the damage that appeared suddenly in spring. While they are tediously laboring to reconstruct the fence, Frost is imploring his neighbor about the useRead MoreAnalysis of Frosts Mending Wall Essay704 Words   |  3 Pagesdamage of the wall. When he refers to something there â€Å"that doesn’t love a wall,† he is referring to a tree, which by nature is consistently causing damage to the wall. As the roots of the tree grow, it causes the frozen ground beneath the wall to swell, and â€Å"spills the upper boulders in the sun.† Clearly this tree has a problem with the wall, and yet the speaker and his neighbor continue to fix it every year. The speaker and the neighbor have two very different opinions about the wall. The speakerRead MoreAnalysis Of Robert Frosts Mending Wall995 Words   |  4 Pages Mending Wall† is a poem by the twentieth century American poet Robert Frost. Whenever we learn about poetry in school, Robert Frost has always been one of my favorite poets (along with Charlotte Brontà «). Poems like The Road Not Taken† and Nothing Gold Can Stay† were always my favorites. I remember reading Mending Wall† sometime freshman or sophomore year, and it had intrigued me. We hadnt looked to deep into the poem as much as I would have liked. All of his poems have thisRead MorePoetry Analysis: Mending Wall Essay470 Words   |  2 Pagesâ€Å"Mending Wall† by Robert Frost, the fifty-six line lyric poem gives off a sarcastic tone that expresses impatience with his neighbor and the â€Å"wall.† The poem focuses on a theme of separation, the necessity of boundaries and the illusory arguments used to annihilate them. Frost uses the phrase â€Å"Mending Wall† to show that the relationship between the narrator and the neighbor is not being repaired. The poem focuses on two men who meet amongst a wall to stroll and make repairs. The narrator feelsRead MoreEssay on Analysis of Mending Wall by Robert Frost2085 Words   |  9 PagesAnalysis of Mending Wall by Robert Frost Robert Frost was inspired to write Mending Wall after talking with one of his farming friend Napoleon Guay. He learned from talking with his neighbor that writing in the tones of real life is an important factor in his poetic form (Liu,Tam). Henry David Thoreau once stated that, â€Å"A true account of the actual is the purest poetry.† Another factor that might have played a role in inspiring Frost to write this poem was his experience of living on a farmRead MoreThe Interlopers And Mending Wall Literary Analysis1047 Words   |  5 PagesInterlopers and Mending Wall, tradition can be seen embedded in between the lines. The Interlopers features two men whose families have hated one another for generations, all over a piece of land that really has no value. The men find themselves bleeding out pinned under a large tree branch, where they die to wolves. In Mending Wall, another set of two men walk along a wall rebuilding it, as it has fallen apart during the winter season, but t he narrator comes to an epiphany; the wall is not neededRead MoreThe Mending Wall Robert Frost Analysis889 Words   |  4 PagesThe Mending Wall, a poem written by Robert Frost, outlines the human instinct of placing boundaries and the necessity of them. He does so using a scenario in which two neighbors go through great lengths to maintain a fence between their homes. They barely associate themselves with one another, and they rarely see each other except for when they are repairing the fence that keeps them separated. I feel that I am able to connect with this piece especially well because throughout my life I have held