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READ THIS
Every year in spring, the poet and his neighbour walk along the stone wall which separates their
two farms and they repair the wall -- putting back the stones which have rolled off.
The poet asks questions about how the wall might have fallen down in the first place -- making
a game of it by suggesting such things as the elves having done it.
The two men, however, have very different ideas about the purpose of the wall: the poet sees
no need for it because it acts as a barrier between them, while the neighbour believes that the
wall keeps the good relationship going between the owners of the separate farms.
ABOUT THE POET
Robert Frost was born in San Francisco in 1874. At the age of 11, he moved to New England,
and it would be there that he would attain his rural poetic flair.
He attended Harvard University, where he married Elinor White. His grandfather bought them
a farm where they would stay for some nine years and where he would work early in the
mornings writing many of the poems which made him famous.
In 1912, Frost moved to England where he would flesh out his poetic ability and come under
the influence of several English poets -- and also of the American, Ezra Pound.
In 1915, soon after the Great War began, Frost and his wife returned to America and bought
a farm in New Hampshire. There the poet spent much of his time writing and teaching. From
1916 through to 1938 he lectured English at Amherst College.
Frost was already 86 when John F. Kennedy was inaugurated as President of the United States
of America. The poet was invited to attend and to speak at the function. It was the final
moment of an illustrious life. Two years later -- in January 1963 -- he died from blood clots to
his lungs.
"Mending Wall" was written in 1916 and describes an incident on his farm in New
Hampshire. He would use the expression, "Good fences made good neighbours", an
idea which he himself clearly despised -- and yet the quote has gone on to be used ever since
in a most positive light.
Have you looked at the questions
in the right column?
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TEST YOURSELF!
Read the left column and then answer
the following questions:
"Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it."
- When the poet speaks about "Something" that doesn't love a wall, he is having a
great deal of fun playing with words. Explain why this would be so. (4)
[Need help?]
The poet speaks as if there is a force or spiritual being that doesn't love a wall and sends the
frost to swell the ground and push the wall down. Is he referring to Jack Frost? He is, of
course, playing on the word "frost". Just as Jack Frost does not like a wall and seeks
to push it down, so does the poet Robert Frost dislike a wall -- Jack Frost and Robert Frost.
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- Why does the poet say "Something there is" instead of explaining clearly what it is
that destroys the walls? (4)
[Need help?]
The purpose of poetry is to paint a picture with words. The reader is meant to use his or her
imagination. The poet weaves magic, casts verbal spells. Frost wants the reader to figure out
the fun he is having playing with the word "frost". If he were just to spell it out for us,
there wouldn't be much fun left, would there?
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- Why would "frozen-ground-swell" be written as a hyphenated
word? (2)
[Need help?]
A hyphenated word like this is known as a compound noun. It is used to create a verbal picture
by taking several independent words and joining them together, thereby creating a new word
which has composite meaning and which forces the reader to stop and ponder its force. It is
also a way of verbal economy, the art of using as few words as possible to paint the verbal
picture.
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"The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
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 clause "I have come after them" can be ambiguous. Explain two possible
interpretations. (4)
[Need help?]
"I have come after them" could be interpreted as a temporal sequence -- an adverbial
clause of time: the rabbit hunters pulled the wall down and then came Robert Frost to repair
it.
On the other hand, it could also be interpreted as meaning that Robert Frost pursued the rabbit
hunters in an effort to catch them.
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- Is the main purpose of the hunting to catch and kill the rabbits? Think carefully about this
one and explain your answer. (4)
[Need help?]
The key to this question is the wording, "But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, to
please the yelping dogs." It would seem that the object was not to catch the rabbit, but to
have fun in pursuing it -- and especially to give the dogs fun by unearthing the rabbit from the
wall and allowing the dogs to chase it further.
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"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."
- When the speaker and his neighbour mend the wall, is there a friendly spirit between them?
Explain carefully. (4)
[Need help?]
Yes, there is a friendly spirit, isn't there? The poet might not agree with his neighbour, might
find his neighbour to be old fashioned and dour, but that does not mean he can't be friendly and
co-operative.
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- The neighbour grows pine trees whereas the poet has an apple orchard. Why then is there
a wall between the two farms? (4)
[Need help?]
This is the question which the poet asks, isn't it? Walls are useful to keep cattle or sheep
enclosed, or to keep them out of one's fields. But one farmer has forests while the other has
an orchard. Is there any purpose in having a wall -- unless it is to stop the apple trees from
playing in the forest!
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- The poet says of the rocks, "And some are loaves". Explain this figure of
speech. (4)
[Need help?]
The stones look like little loaves of bread. This is a metaphor, where the stones are said to be
loaves of bread. If the poet had said that the stones were like loaves of bread, this would be
a simile.
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"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side."
- Why does the poet describe mending the wall as "just another kind of outdoor
game"? (4)
[Need help?]
Wouldn't you agree that this is a somewhat philosophical attitude? The poet cannot see any
point whatever to having this wall, yet at the same time he knows he can do nothing towards
taking it down. He is forced into an annual pilgrimage with his neighbour to repair the wall -- and
no sooner do they turn their back than the wall starts falling down again.
His only way out, therefore, is to take the very philosophical stance: turn it into an outdoor game
to be played with his neighbour every year at springtime, i.e. stop worrying about its purpose
and have some fun!
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"Something there is that doesn't love a wall."
- Why does the poet repeat this expression? (4)
[Need help?]
The repetition is probably for the sake of emphasis. The poet is emphasising that neither he
nor nature love this wall -- that both of them would rather see the wall gone.
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