10 min job on Robert Frost Mending Wall

Maybe this persona is a lonely person and any company is good company – they “meet to walk the line”. ng of the wall “I let my neighbour know beyond the hill”. The persona once calls this task an “outdoor game” which connotes feelings of enjoyment, cooperation, competition. The fact that they walk “the line” “one on a side” gives a visual image in the readers mind and may remind them of a tennis game. The line directly after this comment segregates the two from one another by contrasting the type of people they are with each other. These are all viable options and as we read further into the poem we may understand to a greater extent why he does this. “he is all pine and I am all apple orchard” – the fact that this statement comes directly after the comment on the uselessness of the wall suggests that it is these kind of attitudes that puts a barrier between people thus segregating them from one another. Personification of the persona’s apple trees is used to explain to the reader just how much this persona undermines his neighbour. “my apple trees will never get across, and eat the cones under his pines”. When the two start building the wall the reader may notice that words such as “we” and “our” are used giving the feeling of cooperation and companionship. Even though this comment is light-hearted and almost humorous it gives the reader the impression that the persona thinks of himself as a more intelligent person than his neighbour thus feeling that he needs to explain why the wall is unnecessary. I must emphasize that what is being told in the poem is from the persona’s point of view – not directly Frost’s – so the reader must beware and realise that it is possible that the persona is wrong in some of his comments. Maybe through mending the wall between them they are mending their friendship. This gives the reader something to think about – it puts questions in the reader’s mind as to why he would initiate this if he doesn’t think it’s necessary.