What is the theme of the poem "Mending Wall"?

There are many ways of looking at this poem, which is what makes it an interesting piece to think about. Its theme is the conflict between tradition and innovation.

In the poem, two neighbors mend the stone wall between their farms every spring. The speaker sees no rational point to the task, because neither of the two men has livestock that can wander over the property line to destroy the other's crops. They don't need the fence. The speaker would, therefore, like to drop this annual task. His neighbor doggedly insists on the ritual because his father taught him that good fences make good neighbors. For him, following an established tradition is more important than practicality or innovation.

The speaker makes a compelling case that the fence mending serves no practical purpose. He questions ritual for the sake of ritual. He thinks he other farmer seems to be living in the stone age (perhaps that is an intended pun).

Yet, for all his complaining, the ritual does seem to make the speaker a better neighbor. He does participate in the ritual, and in doing so, he talks with and bonds with his fellow farmer, and he deals with the fact that the two of them look at the world through a different set of lenses. Frost leaves it to the reader to decide whether the ritual does, after all, serve a purpose beyond merely mending a fence. Good fences might make good neighbors not simply because they set up property boundaries, but because their maintenance brings the people together.

Friendship could also be a theme to this poem, or at least comraderie.  Without the help of the neighbor, the wall would fall into disrepair.  They work on it together, thus, "good fences make good neighbors".  Perhaps without the fence and the job of its upkeep, they would not know each other at all? 

"Mending Wall," by Robert Frost, is a narrative about two neighbors who meet every spring to repair the stone wall that divides their properties. The primary symbol of the poem is, of course, the wall, and the theme centers around the wall and how each neighbor perceives both it and his neighbor.

Each spring, the narrator contacts his older neighbor and they walk the wall, replacing the rocks that have fallen. It seems a harmless enough pursuit:

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; 
And on a day we meet to walk the line 
And set the wall between us once again. 
We keep the wall between us as we go. 
To each the boulders that have fallen to each. 
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls 
We have to use a spell to make them balance: 
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!' 
We wear our fingers rough with handling them. 

The narrator points out that the pursuit is not necessary or even worthwhile, for the fence keeps nothing particular either in or out:

There where it is we do not need the wall: 
He is all pine and I am apple orchard. 
My apple trees will never get across 
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. 

The narrator seems to think his neighbor is less enlightened than he is, for he calls him "an old-stone savage" and suggests the man lives in a kind of "darkness," as if he is a relic who is not as enlightened as the narrator. The neighbor is rather laconic, saying only the same thing his father used to tell him, "'Good fences make good neighbors.'" The narrator claims this is a ridiculous thing to say.

The primary theme of this poem concerns barriers. The narrator speaks as if he is superior to this unenlightened man and neither needs nor wants barriers; however, it is clear that the narrator clings just as unreasonably to the wall's existence as his close-minded neighbor.

The narrator is the one who instigates the mending every year. Though he is wryly dismissive of the need for a wall, he is certainly an active participant--even an instigator--in keeping it in good repair. He claims that he would never do something mindlessly like his neighbor. 

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know 
What I was walling in or walling out, 
And to whom I was like to give offence. 
Something there is that doesn't love a wall, 
That wants it down.

It is true that the narrator does not repeat a worn-out phrase from generations past (like his neighbor), but it is also true that he is as deeply concerned about keeping the wall in good repair as his neighbor. The narrator begins his narrative with this line, "something there is that doesn't love a wall," and yet he clearly loves the wall and what it represents. 

For a more extensive discussion of this ironic theme, see the eNotes link, below. 

The central theme is whether the wall is good or bad for the relationship between the two neighbors. In a larger context, the theme is about the effect of emotional and physical barriers. The speaker, initially, seems to think that the wall is inherently a detriment, unnatural, something that separates and therefore is a barrier to an open dialogue/relationship. 

However, he does still see and converse with his neighbor and the wall does provide a sense of privacy which is not inherently bad. Also, there is the play on "mending" as both a verb and an adjective. As an adjective, the wall 'mends' their relationship by keeping them in communication albeit physically separated by the wall. As a verb, the act or ritual of the two neighbors getting together to "mend" the wall is an event that brings the two together. 

And even though the speaker finds the wall unnatural, it is he who lets his neighbor know it is time to mend the wall. So, it is ambiguous as to whether he really doesn't want the wall there. His neighbor may be thinking the same thing. Do we need this wall? Does this ritual of gathering to mend the wall serve as our only means of communication? And if so, it is ironic that the ritual to mend this physical barrier is also a ritual of connection. 

What is the irony in "Mending Wall"?

The irony in the poem is that the wall is, on a practical level, pointless but serves a social function.

Every spring, the speaker and his neighbor meet to repair the stone wall that separates their properties. The speaker complains in the poem that he does not see the point in this ritual. He questions his neighbor's conventional wisdom that says they must do this because "good fences make good neighbors." Rationally speaking, neither of them has "cows" or other livestock that could trample or eat the other person's crop, so there is no reason to go to the effort of mending the wall. He thinks of the neighbor as backward in his insistence on maintaining seemingly pointless old traditions and thinks of him as an "old-stone savage armed" as the neighbor grasps a stone by the top in each hand.

Despite its physical purposelessness, the wall is socially meaningful. On one level, it maintains harmony between the neighbors by clearly portioning off their respective properties. This seems to be the primary meaning of the the neighbor's recurrent phrase. Metaphorically, the wall represents the boundaries of custom and tradition, which serve their purpose in regulating human life. Finally, it can be argued that the wall allows the neighbors to bond, giving them an opportunity to come together each year. It is hard work to repair the wall, but the speaker seems to enjoy it. The two men talk, jokingly cast "spells" to keep precarious stones in place, and grow closer over the shared labor. All of this, supported by the neighbor's traditional wisdom, shows there is a value in the wall, even in the absence of any practical rationale for it.

Why is the title "Mending Wall" significant?

The title of "Mending Wall" is significant because it has two meanings, one literal and the other figurative. This adds a deliberate sense of ambiguity to the title. The poem's speaker and his neighbor are literally mending a wall. Every year they meet at the edge of their properties to engage in the task of repairing this stone wall. In this sense, the word mending functions as a verb. It refers to the clear action that is taking place.

On the other hand, you could read mending as an adjective. This gives the title a more figurative meaning. Read this way, it is the wall itself that is doing the mending. The speaker's neighbor holds the opinion that "Good fences make good neighbors". He feels that a wall can mend relationships between people. The speaker disagrees. However, it gets the reader to consider the function of a wall. As we read the poem, we are meant to ask ourselves if a wall can actually do any mending of its own.

Since the speaker does not seem to think so, there is an irony to this title. Walls, he feels, divide people. They actually serve to fracture relationships. Furthermore, nature itself destroys this wall every year, requiring that it be mended. Walls are not natural structures. Not all walls are made of stone either. There are also the walls that we erect between ourselves and speaking our true feelings. Indeed, the speaker does not tell his neighbor his true doubts about the necessity of their wall.

What is the irony in the poem "Mending Wall"?

Perhaps the greatest irony in the poem "Mending Wall" is that the speaker continues to help rebuild the wall even as he realizes he disagrees with its presence. As the poem progresses, the speaker notes how all sorts of natural forces, like the ground and animals, conspire to take down the wall each winter. However, he and his neighbor gather each spring to put it back together. On this particular rebuilding date, the speaker starts to internally question why the wall exists. He wonders why it is needed if he and his neighbor's trees don't interfere with each other's property. He starts to even feel offended, thinking his neighbor is trying to box him out through this wall. Despite the speaker's probably true fear, he and the neighbor meet and put the wall together, almost ritualistically. This is a social experience, though the neighbor's insistence on keeping the wall suggests that he wants to isolate himself or separate his property from that of the speaker. This, of course, is another instance of irony in the poem, because they join together to keep themselves apart.

When the speaker asks himself why the neighbor doesn't consider what he is "walling out," he implies that the neighbor is shutting down community and communication by requiring the rebuilding of the wall. The neighbor can only answer that "good fences make good neighbors," and the imagery the speaker uses to describe the neighbor at the end of the poem strongly conveys the speaker's attitude that the neighbor's view is backward and pessimistic. At the end of the poem, though, there is no real reason to believe the two won't meet again next spring and rebuild the wall all over again.

Irony is created when there is some discrepancy or contrast between what is expected to happen and what actually happens. One irony of this poem, then, is that the speaker does not like fences or walls and, yet, he participates in the upkeep of the wall between his property and his neighbor's; we would expect him to refuse to do this work. The speaker actually feels that walls are unnatural. They get knocked down by the "frozen-ground-swell" when winter comes, and the rocks on top sometimes fall down as a result of various weather conditions.

It is also ironic that a wall exists and continues to be meticulously maintained by the speaker and his neighbor, where it is not needed. The speaker declares that, where the wall stands, it divides his own apple trees from his neighbor's pine trees. He even tells his neighbor that the apples will never cross the boundary and eat his pinecones like livestock might, and those pinecones will never cross the boundary to eat the speaker's apples. There is absolutely no need for the wall to exist and, yet, the neighbors keep fixing it year after year, defying expectation.

This particular Robert Frost poem is pointing out a situational irony that can be found in the act of putting up boundaries between people. The poem itself is about the narrator and his neighbor who both have to work every year to mend the wall along their property line. The wall gets broken for various reasons in the poem, and the narrator is perfectly willing to just let the wall be done for good. He and his neighbor have completely different crops, and those crops won't affect each other regardless of the wall's presence.

There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."

What is your critical appreciation of Frost's "Mending Wall"?

A critical appreciation of a poem is a reading that generally considers a poem's meaning, its rhythm and rhyme scheme, its tone, its use of language, and so on. You can discuss all of these elements, or some, or focus in on other things, like the poem's setting or context. Because it's a critical appreciation, it does focus on how you personally appreciate the poem, so your critical appreciation may have a very different focus to someone else's, even when looking at the same poem.

With "Mending Wall," we might start by considering the poem's structure and form. As an earlier Educator has noted, what's particularly interesting is that, while writing a poem about mending a wall and clearing up any gaps that have appeared in it, Frost declines to use stanzas or line breaks. Instead, he writes a poem in blank verse, in a single stanza, with similar line lengths. This creates an interesting block of text of regular size, with little deviation. Literally, it is like a wall running down the middle of the page.

This leads us on to the meaning of the poem. What is Frost trying to say about the wall? We recognize that, even as he builds the wall with his neighbor—so the pair are working together—the wall still seems to represent the distance between them. The neighbor believes that "good fences make good neighbors" or that there should be a firm dividing line between two people and their property. The speaker, on the contrary, builds this wall only because he feels he must. He doesn't know what he is "walling in or walling out," and indeed, the fact that the wall falls down every year seems symbolic to the speaker. He questions whether there might be "elves" or some other power which does not want a wall separating the neighbors. But the neighbor will only repeat his father's statement, refusing to deviate from it: "Good fences make good neighbors."

A critical appreciation is a bit of an odd thing. It is more than simply saying that the poem is good or beautiful. You have to justify that statement by critically analyzing the poem or parts of the poem. There are a variety of ways to critically appreciate a poem. You can look at themes, word choice, rhythm, meter, imagery, rhyme, and so on.

One thing that I always like to focus on for a critical appreciation is rhythm and meter. I like focusing on this aspect of poetry because even if a student hates flowery, difficult poetry, that same student often finds it amazing that a poet can organize thoughts in a strict syllable pattern. This particular Frost poem does not rhyme, but it does have rhythm and meter. This makes the poem blank verse, and for the most part, Frost sticks with iambic pentameter. It is a beautiful thing to watch the narrator of this poem give most lines 10 syllables each in an alternating unstressed and stressed pattern. It gives the poem a really smooth and fun feel. However, Frost never really lets the reader settle in for very long. He intentionally breaks up the flow of the poem to make readers notice specific lines.

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

The above line throws off the flow because it has eleven syllables. It sticks out. This is exactly what the line is describing. A rabbit is being forcefully coaxed out of its hole.

There are other really cool structural things about this poem that I think a critical appreciation should highlight. The poem is one long stanza. This is important because the poem is about putting back together a single wall. If you have this poem on paper, turn it 90 degrees to the left. It looks like a long rock wall with certain "rocks" sticking up a little bit more than others in a somewhat regular pattern. That is cool. Finally, probably my favorite hidden gem of this poem is line 23. The poem is 46 lines long, so line 23 is the exact middle of the poem. It is the middle of the wall, and this particular line breaks the poem in half in terms of what is being discussed. Before this line, the narrator tells readers that he has to fix the wall for various reasons. After this line, we discover that the narrator really does not like the wall or see the reason for it.

Mending Wall can be appreciated on several levels. The word "mending" can be a verb, making the poem a record of the repair process completed upon the broken stone barrier. "Mending" could also be read as an adjective, a descriptor of a wall that enables the neighbors to maintain a good relationship based on distance.

The speaker in the poem recognizes that sometimes stone walls are damaged due to changes in the seasons and sometimes they are deconstructed by hunters. He realizes that sometimes walls are needed to keep things contained within an area or to prevent intrusion by outside threats. But he questions the need for the wall he and his neighbor are repairing in some areas.

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know 
What I was walling in or walling out, 
And to whom I was like to give offence.

In the end, the neighbor steadfastly holds to his belief that "good fences make good neighbors" and the wall is rebuilt. The reader and the speaker in the poem are left to make their own interpretation of why this is so.

In "Mending Wall," what is the symbolic or metaphoric meaning of line 43?

Here is the line in context:

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

"He" refers to the speaker's neighbor who continues to repair the wall each spring, even though there is no real need for a wall between their two properties. The neighbor's father's saying is found in the last line: "Good fences make good neighbors."

Line 43 ("He will not go behind his father's saying") means the neighbor will not think independently or deviate from his father's philosophy and actions. Metaphorically, the neighbor represents those who value tradition simply because it is tradition and follow it-stubbornly or out of habit--without reasoning.

The main idea behind a lot of Frost's poem "Mending Wall" is that Frost really doesn't see the use of fences between neighbors.  He feels that if they are neighbors, friends, and kind to one another, what need do we have for a wall between each other?  It's not like his apple trees are going to cross over and eat his neighbor's pine cones.  But, as he repairs the wall with his neighbor every spring, they fix all of the holes and broken parts, keeping that wall erect and standing, even though they are friends.  Frost feels it is almost barbaric and savage to insist on a wall between them.  At the end of the poem, he sees his neighbor bringing stones to the wall to mend it, and describes him as "an old stone-savage armed".  He compares his neighbor to a savage that is armed with a stone, with dangerous intentions.  He goes on to say in lines 42-43 that

"he moves in darkness as it seems to me~/Not of woods only and the shade of trees."

These lines are symbolic, because Frost is not saying that he is literally walking in a patch of darkness caused by the woods and shade; the darkness is a metaphor representing the more barbaric, savage part of our human natures that would make a wall between neighbors necessary.  He sees for a moment, a time when the world was violent and unstable, and when savages fought each other with stones.  He saw back to a darker time when erecting walls was completely necessary to defend your house and home.  The darker part of human nature made walls necessary.  So, the darkness isn't from the woods or forest, the darkness is a metaphor of darker times when walls were definitely necessary because of the dangerous world that people lived in.

Who initiates the mending of the wall in "Mending Wall"?

I am going to assume that this question is referring to the Robert Frost poem "Mending Wall."  

The narrator of the poem is the person that initiates the mending of the wall.  When the poem begins, the narrator is contemplating the fact that something exists that simply doesn't want walls to exist.  

Something there is that doesn't love a wall,

The speaker then goes on to give two examples of "something" that repeatedly destroys his wall.  The first thing is the weather.  Alternating freezes and thaws eventually put large gaps in the wall.  The second thing is hunters that tear apart the wall, so their dogs can hunt the rabbits. 

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs.

The gaps I mean, No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there.

What is the structure of "Mending Wall"?

Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” is composed of forty-five lines of blank verse, without stanza breaks. Blank verse is, quite simply, unrhymed iambic pentameter. It is a popular poetic form in the English idiom, employed to masterly effect by Milton and Shakespeare. Part of the appeal of blank verse is that it offers a moderate degree of formal constraint. On the one hand, highly structured formal verse, with rhymes schemes and stanzaic forms, can be too limiting for some poet’s purposes. On the other hand, free verse—poetry with neither rhyme nor meter—can offer too little constraint. Frost himself remarked that writing free verse is like playing “tennis without a net.” Indeed, he used a variety of forms, including blank verse.

An important formal aspect of Frost’s poetry, including “Mending Wall,” is the way he balances formal constraint with natural speaking cadences. In some lines of “Mending Wall,” such as “The work of hunters is another thing,” the iambic pentameter is pristine while managing to include speech-like formulations, namely the quotidian phrase “another thing.” In other lines, he uses metrical substitutions to vary the meter and bring the poem’s cadences even closer to spoken speech. Consider the line

‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’

Frost uses a trochaic substitution in the first foot (“Stay where”), meaning that the usual pattern of an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable is reversed. Until most lines of the poem, the first syllable is stressed. In addition to offering variety, this allows Frost to introduce lines of dialogue that sound true-to-life. Indeed, one could imagine hearing such a line of speech in everyday interactions; it does not sound poetic or affected. Robert Frost referred to this marriage of form and speech patterns as “the sound of sense,” a concept that formed one of the pillars of his poetics.

How does the setting of "Mending Wall" develop its central idea?

"Mending Wall" offers two divergent viewpoints about walls. The first is that walls "make good neighbors." In other words, walls are tools of demarcation. They apportion property in clear ways. This lessens conflict between neighbors. On the other hand, walls are without merit, perhaps because they cause alienation among neighbors. A wall can signal aloofness, an unwillingness to make an emotional investment in others.

In the poem, the poet uses the rural New England setting to highlight the central idea that walls represent differences in social thought, expectations, and behavior.

First, the imagery of barking dogs and hunters removing portions of the wall to flush out rabbits signifies movement and aggression. Thus, the bucolic landscape isn't just a peaceful setting; it's quite often the scene of violent action. Rural citizens participate in hunting as a sport and a means of sustenance, and walls often get in the way of pursuing one's prey. To the hunters, walls are an impediment. However, to the speaker, walls prevent neighbors from forming deeper, more intimate connections with each other. It's quite clear, however, that the speaker's neighbor isn't interested in such a connection.

To the speaker, his neighbor "moves in darkness," and that darkness doesn't just encompass the woods and the "shade of trees." It also represents a mindset that the speaker thinks is an impediment to unity and fellowship.

The speaker insists that his "apple trees will never get across / And eat the cones" under his neighbor's pine trees. Thus, the setting—the pine trees, apple orchard, woods, and vast landscape—develops the central idea by highlighting the divide between two prevailing opinions. The speaker uses the facts of the setting to reinforce his sense that the wall is unnecessary, but the neighbor does not change his mind.

How does the setting of "Mending Wall" contribute to the development of its central idea?

Robert Frost's poem, "Mending Wall," was first published in 1914. The setting is rather vague and seems confined to the immediate areas either side of the same portion of the eponymous wall. The speaker tells us that his neighbor is "beyond the hill," and that there are pine trees on his neighbor's side of the wall and apple trees on his own side of the wall.

Robert Frost perhaps keeps the setting rather vague so that it can be universal. If the setting is vague and nondescript, then the situation which the poem describes can be applied to any place or time. Indeed, the poem deals with questions about borders, and these are questions which resonate in many different places and in many different times.

The speaker in the poem does also suggest that the poem is set "at spring mending-time." The season of spring often symbolizes new life, and so by setting the poem in spring, Frost implies that there is a chance for hope and a new way of life if we can only understand how detrimental and irrational walls and borders are.

What is the significance and formal effect of the wall's repetition in lines 12-15 of "Mending Wall"?

Frost writes this poem to question the validity or usefulness of walls.  He questions whether they do more harm than good; after all, if you erect a wall between you and your neighbor, isn't that a bit insulting?  It's like saying, "Hey, we're neighbors and all, but I sure don't trust you...you might come over and steal my stuff, so, this wall will sure keep you out."  He questions the phrase, "Good fences make good neighbors" that his neighber keeps quoting at him.  He thinks to himself,

"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know/What I was walling in or walling out, /And to whom I was like to give offence"

by building the wall.  His neighbor has pine trees and he has apple trees, and it's not like his apples will cross the border "and eat the cones under his pines," so really, why have a wall?

So, Frost teams up with his neighbor to repair holes in the wall, and says in lines 14-15 that they

"set the wall between us once again. /We keep the wall between us as we go."

The repetition enhances the feeling of separation that he has with his neighbor.  They don't both stand on the same side of the wall as they repair it, they keep the wall between them.  Even though the seasons and hunters have torn holes in the wall, they work hard to keep that wall preserved. Frost uses the repetition to contrast two friendly neighbors who are out working together, but still have to have a wall there.  He thinks it's absurd, and the repetition of "the wall" emphasizes the absurdity of it.  The wall transforms a friendly neighbor into "an old stone-savage armed" with rocks, coming from a darker and more dangerous time.

It's a great poem the provides a lot of thought-provoking points about human nature, tradition, and logic.  Good luck!

What is the subject and significance of "Mending Wall"?

"Mending Wall" is about the borders, literal and metaphorical, that separate nations and individuals. The speaker in the poem questions the idea that "good fences make good neighbors." The speaker's neighbor, who repeats this refrain, is described as moving "in darkness," meaning that he moves in ignorance, refusing to question the truth of the saying that "good fences make good neighbors." The speaker's neighbor is also described dismissively as "like an old-stone savage," implying that his opinions about walls and fences are, like him, primitive, or "savage."

In other parts of the poem, the speaker suggests that walls and man-made borders are not natural. Indeed, the wall between himself and his neighbor is destroyed by "the frozen-ground swell under it," and then by "hunters," and also, continually, by a mysterious "Something . . . that doesn't love a wall." The wall is destroyed repeatedly and inevitably, so that the speaker and the neighbor must continually, out of habit it seems, meet to repair it. It seems also that they only meet, ironically, when they come together to repair the wall meant to divide them. And each time they meet, the speaker's neighbor unthinkingly insists that "good fences make good neighbors." The speaker wants the neighbor to ask himself, "Why do they make good neighbors?" The question is partly rhetorical, and the answer that the speaker means to imply is that, simply, they don't.

To understand the significance of this poem, it is important to consider it in the context of the time in which it was written. "Mending Wall" was the first poem in Frost's 1915 collection of poems entitled, North of Boston. This places it, contextually, at the beginning of World War One, which began in 1914. This was a war fought over national borders, and a war which fundamentally changed the borders of Europe.

This poem might also have significance in a more modern context too. One of Donald Trump's key election pledges to the American people in 2016 was that he would build a wall between America and Mexico. If Robert Frost was still alive, he might want more people to ask of Trump's proposed wall, as the speaker asks of his neighbor in the poem, "Why (do walls) make good neighbors?"

Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” is a narrative poem in blank verse. It subject matter is two neighbours in New England who each year walk the length of a stone wall between their properties in order to find places where the stones have fallen down and repair the wall by picking up stones of the appropriate size and inserting them in any gaps or loose areas.

Its significance in literary history has to do with the Georgian revival of narrative, often with rural themes, and return to traditional prosody as a reaction to modernism. In contrast to international modernism, Georgian poetics emphasizes regional roots, and thus Frost echoes the New England of Emerson, Thoreau, Longfellow, and other earlier American poets.

The wall itself and the tradition of mending it stand as emblems of the rituals that define local community.

How is "Mending Wall" ironic?

Walls are generally built to protect and secure. They are there to either keep out what is bad or unwanted, or to keep in what is valuable and important. Ironically, though, it seems that the wall between the speaker and his neighbor serves no purpose. The speaker states in lines 22 to 23:

It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall....

Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall" is told in the first person. The narrator describes the task of maintaining a wall between the neighbor's pine trees and his own apple orchard. The wall is difficult to maintain. It is a dry stone wall that partially collapses due to snow and freezing in winter and parts sometimes get knocked down by hunters. The narrator speculates that there is no real reason for the wall's existence, as there is nothing to be walled in or out, and the wall is neither high nor durable. 

The main irony in the poem has to do with the phrase the narrator's neighbor repeats, "Good fences make good neighbours." On the one hand, it seems odd, as fences separate people. The narrator speculates, though, that in the case of dairy farmers, a wall prevents mingling of animal herds and ensuing disputes. The irony is that although the narrator and his neighbor have little in common, the shared annual duty of mending the wall brings them together, and thus maintaining good fences, does, in fact, serve to make them good neighbors by letting them bond over this shared task. 

How does the structure of "Mending Wall" contribute to its description?

"Mending Wall" describes the old, low stone walls of New England that still often mark property lines. In the poem, the narrator and his neighbor walk the length of their dividing wall. Each one picks up stones that have fallen naturally from it (or from hunters who dismantled part of it to find a hiding rabbit), and places them back where the rocks will fit and stay.

The poem is generally written in iambic pentameter, but the stresses on the syllables aren’t consistent. The line “But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather,” even has an extra syllable at the end. The poem uses no rhyme scheme. And if you look at the format of each line, the profile looks a bit ragged – just like real stone walls do, with some parts that fit smoothly and others that stick out a bit more than others.  For these reasons, it could be said that the structure of the poem matches its subject matter well.

What is the "Mending Wall" a metaphor for?

The mending wall serves as an extended metaphor for unexamined traditions. The two farmers have had this stone wall between their properties for a long time, even though the wall is unnecessary, given that neither owns livestock. There is no reason to keep it up, but the speaker’s neighbor insists over and over to the speaker that "good fences make good neighbors." Thus, the wall exists in the way that many long-held traditions exist—as much out of inertia as out of necessity. Relatedly, there is a suggestion that the wall stands in for the boundaries of society, given that the forces that would undo the wall—harsh weather, thoughtless hunters, the speaker’s own “mischief”—are framed as forces outside the confines of civilization and civility.

The wall also represents the emotional rift between the two men. Neither ever goes beyond the wall to interact with the other, suggesting that its existence has also hindered any deeper friendship the two might hope to share. Therefore, the wall represents the obstinacy people often have when it comes to mindlessly following certain traditions as well as the emotional barriers that can be created in such situations. At the same time, though the wall bars the men from forming a deeper bond, it also protects them from any potential disputes that so often arise between neighbors.

What is the purpose of the wall in "Mending Wall"?

The reader never knows the inital reason why the wall was built, and that is the whole premise for the speaker asking his neighbor about the purpose of the wall.  The speaker reasons, "Isn't it / Where there are cows?  But here there are no cows" (ll. 30-31) and "There where it is we do no need the wall: / He is all pine and I am apple orchard" (ll. 23-24).  The speaker does not understand why there is a wall when there is no need to keep something in place or keep something else out.  In fact, every spring, the speaker and his neighbor meet to mend the wall, and in this particular moment of the poem, the speaker wants to know the reason.  All his neighbor can answer is a saying that his own father spoker, "'Good fences make good neighbors'" (l. 27 and 45).  Perhaps the reason for the wall is simply to give the neigbors a chance to speak to one another once a year in the simple act of repairing the wall. Walls are also a way to designate what belongs to each, and perhaps this is also the reason, to prevent arguments in the future.  

What does the wall symbolize for the speaker in the poem "Mending Wall"?

The answer would be c)unnatural separations.

In the poem, the speaker or narrator is perplexed at his neighbor's insistence on a wall. According to his neighbor, however, "good fences make good neighbors." To the narrator, walls only cause the divide between neighbors to widen.

He reasons that fences are only good for keeping out cows. Since neither he nor his neighbor owns cattle, the narrator doesn't understand why they would need to build a wall. He also asserts tongue-in-cheek that, since his neighbor grows pine trees while he grows apple trees, neither of them has anything to fear. The narrator's "apple trees will never get across/ And eat the cones under his pines." To the speaker, the only conceivable need to build a wall would be to keep out danger. Since neither he nor his neighbor poses a danger to the other, the speaker does not understand the need for a wall.

The speaker maintains that, if it was up to him, he would ask some very important questions before he built a wall. He would ask what exactly he was supposed to be keeping out and whether the wall would offend anyone. The speaker wonders if the reason they need a wall is because of the elves. Then, shaking off this silly line of reasoning (he's feeling a little mischievous), the narrator admits that he would rather his neighbor be honest with him about the reasons himself. The speaker is frustrated, and he wishes that his neighbor would understand his reasons for not wanting a wall between them.

What is the message of the poem "Mending Wall"?

Setting aside the ambiguity of the term “message,” the poem seems to discuss the contrasts between tradition and new thinking, between habit and modern adjustments to tradition. Frost, who was more interested in “sketches” of New England (both physical features and humanistic personality traits), was observing a seasonal ritual – two neighbors meeting for a mutual task, repairing a stone wall after a winter’s damage caused by swelling of frozen terrain – and the illogic of that tradition, because there was no actual pragmatic need for any fence at all at that particular boundary between properties. Frost’s conciliation of these two epistemologies (ways of knowing) takes the form of quoting (twice) a time-honored but seldom challenged homily: “Good fences make good neighbors.”

The friendly irony of the homily is that, while "good fences" may once have referred to avoiding disputes of property lines or trespassing of livestock, it now supports the social value of neighbors meeting at least once a year to renew their warm-hearted acquaintance, in this shared activity, an opportunity to talk while working, catching up on each other’s lives. Frost "sketches" another social trait of New Englanders, a quiet reserve of feelings, an abhorrence of nosiness, a value in privacy.

What are the criticisms of the poem "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost?

Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" is about two different outlooks on life and relationships. The neighbors, one of whom is the speaker, meet each spring to mend the stone wall between their properties. The speaker wonders about why this ritual exists, since there is nothing that either of them has that could stray onto the other's land. There is no livestock on the one side that could damage the other's property. The speaker remarks only that “He is all pine and I am apple orchard."  The neighbor, however, never questions the need for the fence. He has learned from his father that "Good fences make good neighbors."

The poem is a commentary on the artificial constructs that people build between themselves and the rest of the world. Even neighbors, those with whom we should be most comfortable and friendly, set themselves apart from one another. Though he has heard the neighbor's claim about good fences and good neighbors, the speaker doubts the truth of that sentiment. In lines 32-36 the speaker reveals his thoughts about fence building:

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down."

These lines clearly show that the speaker believes that something, likely nature itself, "wants [the fence] down, that fences are unnatural. Note how the speaker wonders about how walling in or out could "give offense." This pun is important. The word "offense" when spoken sounds almost exactly like the phrase "a fence." The speaker would think long and hard before intentionally creating either.

Yet, despite his reservations, he helps construct this wall between himself and his neighbor each spring. This act shows that even the speaker, who doesn't like offending fences, still is to blame, at least in part, for the division between him and his neighbor.

The last five lines of the poem show how the speakers share in building the wall has affected his view of his neighbor:

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father's saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbours."

The neighbors repeated comment shows that these attitudes are learned, not natural. This social construct was built by his father, and he will keep the barrier in place. The speaker sees his neighbor as one who "moves in darkness." Darkness metaphorically can mean either lack of understanding or even something sinister. Either way the speaker means it, he is judging his neighbor. Either the neighbor is less wise or enlightened or he his more bound, by tradition or coldness, or both. Regardless of how the speaker means this thought, the very act of helping to mend the wall has affected him. He unwittingly becomes a part of the problem. His hesitance to speak helps to build the fence, and the offense.

For more information about the poem "Mending Wall," see the links below:

This is a truly genius poem. Each time I re-read it I see more. That is the mark of great poetry.

Provide a critical analysis of lines 27 to 34 in Frost's "Mending Wall", considering the theme.

These lines are fairly straightforward. The narrator is puzzled by his neighbors claim that "good fences make good neighbors." He understands how this works if the had livestock. If they had cows or horses getting into each others' pastures or sheep mixing with a neighbor's cows, that could be a problem. But there is no obvious reason why orchards need to be fenced.

There are two metaphorical levels on which this operates. First, the farmer is referring to personal boundaries -- what in 21st century slang would be "giving each other space" or not being overly familiar. This reduces potential friction.

Second, the main activity and interest the narrator shares with his neighbor is repairing the wall -- and so mending the wall, and maintaining the fence, does, in fact, make them good neighbors.

What makes "Mending Wall" a poem?

Robert Frost's poem, "Mending Wall," is one of the representative of modern poetry, but not in the high-art sense of poets like T.S. Eliot. This is considered a poem because it tells a story with images and figurative language. Frost uses the wall as a metaphor for boundaries. The speaker doesn't understand why a wall has to separate him from his neighbor. The speaker wonders throughout the poem why the wall must be repaired, and uses images like elves and spells to try to explain the mystery of it all.

Frost uses inverted language like "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," which is a poetic device for aiding in the rhythm and pace of a poem. He uses metaphors saying that boulders are loaves--saying they are like loaves of bread. He uses repeated lines throughout the poem for emphasis. This text has no linear plot, which makes it a poem, rather than something like a short story.

Where is the wall located in "Mending Wall"?

In Robert Frost's poem, the wall lies between an apple orchard owned by one man and a pine grove owned by another. Every spring the two men cooperate to mend the wall, which has been damaged in a kind of cyclical process by both nature and men. The one man repeats his observation "Something there is that doesn't love a wall" while his neighbor responds with the aphorism that "good fences make good neighbors."

One might consider a less literal answer to your question about the location of the wall. I was tempted, in this context, to type the word as "wall," in quotation marks. A wall means separation, not merely between two plots of land but between people, cultures, ideas, religions, and many other things. Perhaps the key to the central metaphor lies in the lines:

I see him there,
Bringing a stone grasped firmly from the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

Here one might ask, what is implied by the image of the man, who thinks walls are good, "mov[ing] in darkness"—and not just a natural absence of light made by the "shade of trees"? Is the darkness one of ideas, symbolic of the divisions between people anywhere, in any time?

Why was the wall in "Mending Wall" constructed?

We are not told why the wall was put between these neighbors' properties, but we can make some inferences from this poem and speculate a bit. We know that the narrator did not put up the wall, which we can infer from his disapproving attitude about it. There is some evidence that suggests the neighbor's father may have put up the wall because the neighbor is fond of quoting his father as saying "Good fences make good neighbors" (line 27). Because the wall is clearly old, it is also possible that at some point in the distant past, there was a need to pen in cows or sheep on one property or the other, or that there was a feud between landowners that made the wall a good idea.  And also, in a terrain in which no natural feature, for example, a stream, marks a boundary well, people do like to know where the boundary of their land is, to know what they are responsible or liable for. It is this sense of good fences being good neighbors that the neighbor is probably referring to. The neighbor is not completely wrong, in spite of the narrator's rant on the topic.  One suspects that the neighbor is unlikable in other ways, as well, and the narrator resents spending even one day a year with him in wall-mending.