• Frost’s Neighbor: Mending the Relationship

    By: T’Kope ---------------



    Relationships with neighbors are important. In “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost, he has some trouble with the relationship he has with his neighbor. His neighbor built a wall, but it keeps being knocked down. While the speaker doesn’t want it up, he helps him rebuild to help mend his relationship with his neighbor. The theme is about mending relationships.

    In the first line of the poem, the speaker is already talking about the wall directly. Specifically in lines 1-3 he says: “Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun”. This suggests that there is a force out there that by default does not want the wall to be there. Using phrases such as “frozen-ground-swell under it” and “in the sun” suggest this force to be nature.

    In lines 5-7, the speaker talks of “hunters”, he says: “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”. This suggests there is something besides nature that doesn’t want the wall there, or don’t think it belongs. The speaker gets a sense of mischievousness in lines 10-14 because even though the damage is plain to see, they never see who does it, or when it is done, they only see the damage afterward.

    Ironically, the speaker thinks the wall is getting in the way of their relationship as neighbors, but it is the only thing that brings them closer when they are rebuilding. He always agrees to help him build the wall, even though he disagrees with it being there in the first place. He is always arguing why the wall is there. He says in lines 24-26 “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.” By this he means there are two things on the other side, but wall or no wall, they will never cross paths, as they know their boundaries. Even still, his neighbor replies “Good fences make good neighbors”, as he knows his trees won’t eat his pines, but he wants the fence up anyways. In lines 30-33 he further argues his point in saying: “'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out,” using “cows” as an example, “what I was walling in or walling out” merely suggests he doesn’t know what the wall is protecting.



    In the end, lines 43-45 the speaker says: “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.’” This implies he has always gone by his father’s saying, and still wishes too, which is overall why he wants the wall. While the speaker wishes to mend the relationship, the neighbor feels the boundary between them is what allows their relationship to flourish, as if they did not stay in their boundaries, their relationship would fall apart.