Robert Frost's Before I Built A Wall

In “Mending Wall”, two neighbors are ironically united by the traditional rebuilding of the wall between them. A wall symbolizes boundaries, orders, and separation. Or does it? One of the two neighbors doesn’t seem to think so. “Good fences make good neighbors” is his motto. (Line 26) The neighbor doesn’t see how ironic it is that the wall is a meeting spot. He uses the wall as an excuse to talk with his neighbor, because he is not very open or conversational. The situational irony ostended by Robert Frost is that the wall between the two clashing neighbors is supposed to separate them. However, each year, when they meet to “walk the line”, the wall serves as a meeting spot for the two to catch up. (Line 12) Dividing, but unifying, Frost uses the wall to symbolize unity amongst clashing people. Without the situational irony of repairing the wall, the two incompatible neighbors would unlikely be able to unite.

The narrator himself is not fond of the wall — he feels that the wall is unnecessary, unfriendly, and slightly offensive. However, his neighbor says, "Good fences make good neighbors. " This is an old proverb that implies that there are only good, happy neighbors when there are boundaries; that way, there is no fighting over whose property is whose. It helps to create lines, which eliminates potential conflict. For example, if there is a tree that is in between two houses, who must rake the leaves each fall?

“Cherish your human connections: your relationships with friends and family”(Joseph Brodsky). “The Mending wall” was written in 1914 by Robert Frost. This tells the story of a town and the walls that the townspeople love to keep, and even when the walls fall the townspeople will always build them right back up. The narrator of this story seems to question these walls however, all anyone around him can reply to this is that good fences make good neighbors. The people of this town keep the walls because it is what their parents did, and what their parents before did, a tradition of sorts. This story leaves us the question of whether or not fences make good neighbors? In some sense maybe, they keep property lines, help to keep some order in our crazy worlds, and even to protect ourselves. However, I do not think that the fences make good neighbors, I think that these fences divide us and keep us from making connections with others. Although these walls may protect us, they separate us and in the end do not make good neighbors.

Building physical and emotional walls has a negative impact on the people, countries, and civilizations they divide. In the case of Frost's poem, the wall took away the narrator's voice. The narrator disliked the wall, but was too timid to speak up for what he believes in. His neighbor says "good walls make good neighbors," but the narrator felt as if the wall should be torn down, and they should unite

In Robert Frost’s poem “A Mending Wall” a stone wall separates the speaker from his neighbor. In the spring the speaker and the neighbor meet

Walls are built in relationships, to keep people out of lives and protect from those who have been hurt. Walls are build and repairs for safety and to divide from the unknowns. Society has set and precedence that walls are necessary without reasoning and validation. In the poem the neighbor states “Good fences make good neighbors.” which would suggest that walls are necessary infect. The speaker doesn’t argue his lack of desire for the wall he just continues repairing it as if he has no objections. In society people might not want a wall or barrier however if your neighbor does then your objection are irrelevant. While in today’s society you don’t have to have a reason for a wall it’s your own right to have one they still exhibit how much society has changed over the years. “Frost's poem makes it clear that the saying is not the maxim of an isolationist policy, designed to avoid contact with the other and so preventing neighborliness” (Schwobel). 50 years ago walls weren’t a necessity they were a luxury, people walked to their neighbors and greeted them with open arms. Whether there is or isn’t a necessity for a wall or barrier in life though its personal freedoms but physically and mentally that allow people to maintain those walls that are

“Mending Wall”, by Robert Frost, is a poem that tells the story of two neighbors with very different viewpoints, who are engaged in the keeping and repairing of a stone wall, an artificial barrier, between each of their properties year after year, even though there seems to be no good reason to continue doing so. The story of how the wall is mended every year is told from the perspective of “the speaker”, who compares his feelings about continuing to maintain this barrier, to the traditional attitude and behavior of “the neighbor”, who feels that the wall should remain because “good fences make good neighbors”. In the poem, the speaker questions why the two of them agree to meet at the wall each year, to walk the line, and to continue rebuilding the parts that have fallen or have been knocked down. The speaker points out that not only do the two neighbors have no animals to prevent crossing onto each others properties that might eat the other’s crops, but he states that even the forces of nature, the native wildlife, and even other people such as hunters, seem to show that maintaining the wall is useless and futile.

In his poem 'Mending Wall', Robert Frost presents to us the thoughts of barriers linking people, communication, friendship and the sense of security people gain from barriers. His messages are conveyed using poetic techniques such as imagery, structure and humor, revealing a complex side of the poem as well as achieving an overall light-hearted effect. Robert Frost has cleverly intertwined both a literal and metaphoric meaning into the poem, using the mending of a tangible wall as a symbolic representation of the barriers that separate the neighbors in their friendship.

The turn of the twentieth century brought about in the United States the largest economic and industrial period of change ever experienced in the history of mankind. This period of time was characterised by big power hungry monopolies, the downfall of colonialism, devastating outbreaks of cholera and typhoid, and most importantly the rejection of old-world traditions. During this time of change, In 1914 Robert Frost published his poem “Mending Wall”. The poem is literally about the speaker and his neighbour repairing a wall that divides their property, but figuratively, this American classic embodies the spirit of a new age in American history. In the “Mending Wall”, Robert Frost uses the literary device of symbolism to express his theme of the destruction of old-world tradition.

Another idea that came up during our discussion is the idea of introversion within the piece. I have always leaned towards being an introvert. I often like to wall myself off from others when I am feeling uncomfortable or not at my best. In the poem, Frost states, “To each the boulders that have fallen to each” (16). This line means that each person deals with his or her own problems. This idea is representative of my own way of thinking. I prefer to keep to myself. In my opinion, it is better to mind your own business than to nose your way into other people’s business. A similar idea of introversion earlier in the poem: “And on a day we meet to walk a line / And set this wall between us once again” (13-14). This is one of the few times that the two characters meet. It is ironic that one of their few interactions is to repair the fence that separates them in the first place. This expresses truly how alone people are as a result of hiding behind their boundaries. It is a representation of the introversion shown in both the poem and myself. I think that Frost’s intention with revealing this is to bring light to the loneliness of living behind a wall. Living behind a wall has its consequences and thus is not always good.

To start off, Robert Frost, uses the word “something” to symbolize nature. So then that line, “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall” (Frost, 1), is basically saying nature doesn’t love a wall. Throughout the poem there is an intense contrast between the speaker and the neighbor. The neighbor is laconic and traditional, while the speaker is much more distinctive with his words and feelings about “society”. The crucial lines in “Mending Wall” iis when Frost writes this, “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And whom I was like to give offense”, (Frost, 32-34) this is explaining how for the action of “building a wall” would needed to be questioned, rather than followed without a doubt by a large quantity of society. Which is parallel to the act of nonconformity. The speaker is trying to get the neighbor to question, why? The speaker mentions that the neighbor only says “Good fences make good neighbors” (Frost, 27), but the speaker italicized “Why” in line 30. Which shows it is very important to him to question and to wonder, because it provides more

Similar to “Acquainted with the Night,” isolation is a major theme in “Mending Wall.” In “Mending Wall,” there are two characters: the speaker and the neighbor. The two characters have two different opinions on what make a “good neighbor.” The neighbor views walls as a crucial object in

Should traditions that seem to have no use in the modern day be done away with? The speaker in “Mending Wall” thinks so. While many traditions are good, the poem “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost suggests, that we should question them every once in awhile. In the poem, Robert Frost, describes how two neighbors repair a stone wall every spring. The speaker, the neighbor whose thoughts we have insight to, calls into question why the wall is being built and for what reason must there be a wall. However his neighbor's response is “Good walls make good neighbours”. The speaker is a hypocrite because he accuses the neighbor of being set in tradition but he himself tells the reader that he mends the wall on his own spare time. The reader comes to the conclusion that the wall is a symbol for questioning traditions. Robert Frost’s use of allegory, symbolism, and imagery help us get to that conclusion.

While the narrator seems more willing to reach out to his neighbor, in the end, he does not. He does wonder why fences supposedly make good neighbors. For him, the question is what is he "walling in or walling out"? He seems to realize that he is "walling out" other people. As long as the symbolic wall stands between the neighbors, they will always be separated. Earlier in the poem, Frost uses the symbolism of a rabbit to seemingly reinforce this point. The hunters must destroy the wall in order to "have the rabbit out of hiding". The men, in turn must break down the walls between them if they are to come out of "hiding". The narrator seems to have a desire to point this out to his neighbor. However, he does not, simply dismissing his idea as "the mischief" that spring has instilled in him. He realizes that he is unable to communicate with his neighbor in any meaningful fashion and, thus, remains in isolation from him.

Frost used a distinct way of writing throughout his poem that not only hooked the reader into the story, but also made them question their own views of walls, both physical and psychological. In the poem it is displayed that walls can be both good and bad. The wall that the narrator sees as the embodiment of what separates them, it is actually the one thing that brings them together every spring. Near the end, the narrator brings back the original question, what is the something? With this poem, maybe Frost wanted the reader to examine themselves and their surroundings and try to answer the question of tradition, and how they unite us and separates us at the same time. The narrator’s neighbor is the personification of the old ways and custom in the poem, it is evident as he is constantly repeating “good fences make good neighbors” (Frost 245) and the fact that “he will not go behind his father’s saying” (Frost 246). Even though, good fences make good neighbors is a well-known proverb, people will eventually ask themselves: Why is it necessary to have fences to build good