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   vandananarikot Teacher
   High School - 10th Grade

   Frost uses an ordinary incident to convey a deeper and profound meaning. The wall for Frost is a defiance of nature’s will.   Nature had intended all to share its property without disputes.  The opening line itself tells us that Frost feels ‘Something there is that doesn’t love a wall’ and that is nature who doesn’t like walls. The poem The Mending Wall is a take on the differences existing in today’s society among nations, among people, and among neighbors. The poem The Mending Wall written by Robert Frost   speaks of a very ordinary and commonplace incident which is that of repairing a wall. People want walls between neighbors.

   Frost also mentions that the wall symbolizes the difference in his thought process and that of the neighbor. The line, ‘He is all pine and I am apple orchard’ gives us a sense of the kind of people both the poet and his neighbor are. The poet has planted trees that bear fruits which can help mankind, but the neighbor has planted pines which have too many thorns.  So, according to the poet, the wall defines these differences. 

     Using the wall, Robert Frost touches upon the question of the lack of brotherhood among the people of the world and the non-existence of unity among nations of the world and questions the very need for walls or boundaries between nations and asks if they are needed for security reasons or to hinder the unity of the people. Frost uses this aspect of the wall significantly.

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   Posted by vandananarikot on Sunday November 23, 2008 at 1:38 AM