Student Question

In "Mending Wall," who owns an apple orchard?

Quick answer:

In "Mending Wall," the narrator owns an apple orchard, while the neighbor owns a pine forest. The narrator humorously suggests that the apples won't eat the pine cones, questioning the necessity of the wall. Despite this, the neighbor insists that "good fences make good neighbors," a belief inherited from his father. The poem highlights the annual ritual of repairing the wall, suggesting nature's subtle opposition to the barrier.

Expert Answers

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In "The Mending Wall" by Robert Frost, the narrator has an apple orchard on his property, and the neighbor has a pine forest. The narrator jokes to the neighbor that the apples aren't likely to eat the pine cones while also challenging the idea that they need to fix the wall between the two properties. The neighbor is insistent, however, that "good fences make good neighbors," a common aphorism that the neighbor in the poem apparently learned from his father. Some force in nature appears to be on the narrator's side however, as each year they have to return to walk the property line and fix all the gaps and holes which have mysteriously appeared since they mended it the year before.

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