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
Frost has described all of mankind. This is because every meaning has a particular sound-posture, or to think of it in another way, the sense of meaning has a particular sound which each individual is familiar with and without knowing the exact words that are being used is able to understand the thought, idea or emotion that is being conveyed. The purpose of this variation is to allow readers to feel and hear a change in the poem. It is simple on the surface but there's an obscurity and a depth that the reader can't quite get inside of. This can be shown from the mention that "at spring mending time we find them there," this spring mending time is a result of nature destroying it over the winter months, but these two continue to rebuild the wall only to have nature destroy it again. 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. And then nation-to-nation we do the same by creating boundaries. This smooth flow allows readers to understand the message of the poem. That's part of what makes this poem universally acceptable and enjoyable. Note the use of the word something: "Something there is that doesn't love a wall. Two old farmers - one who sees the fence only for what it is (stones, work, a separating of physical boundaries) and one who see the fence for what it represents - the space, the distance, the walling in and walling out, the darkness inside each of us - and who struggles with wanting the wall to stay down, while at the same time working to keep it up. It is about Frost's feeling about walls and it's universal because it speaks to the way we all think and behave. Frost's use iambic pentameter in "Mending Wall".
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Acceptance Essays
