The poem illustrates the tension between order and chaos, two elemental forces which are represented by the wall’s cyclical repair and destruction. The opening line draws attention to the constant presence of chaos, which the speaker refers to as “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.” Chaos takes several forms in the poem, the most obvious being inclement weather conditions, namely “the frozen-ground-swell” that sunders the wall from below, and the destruction done by hunters who pull apart the wall to draw rabbits out of hiding. 

The speaker initially names these external sources of chaos, but as the poem goes on, it becomes clear that he himself embodies some of this chaotic potential. As he and his neighbor repair the wall from either side, the speaker realizes that the wall is pointless, separating pine trees from apple trees. Before he voices this realization, he reflects, “Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder / If I could put a notion in his head.” Not only do these lines identify the speaker as part of that “Something” that “doesn’t love a wall,” they fittingly convey that a larger force is moving through him and animating him. That force—which can be identified as spring, mischief, or that which “doesn’t love a wall”—is fundamentally that of chaos.

Chaos is counterposed by order, embodied by the neighbor’s staunch adherence to the maintenance of the wall, to his father’s adage that “Good fences make good neighbors,” and to tradition itself. Order functions in several ways in this poem, pushing against the inevitable damages wrought by nature, establishing clear boundaries between the two characters, and upholding the ways of the past through respect, inertia, or a combination of both. 

As with many aspects of this poem, the tension between order and chaos is left unresolved. Not only is it unclear whether the speaker ultimately finds the neighbor’s call for order compelling, it is certain that time will bring fresh destruction to the wall.