Mending Wall – Robert Frost - Poem Summary

Introduction:

Mending Wall is one of the most widely quoted poems of Frost. It is a dramatic lyric or monologue. The speaker is a young man, presumably the poet himself, and the lyric is an expression of his views and attitudes. The other character is the poet’s neighbour. He does not speak even a single word, but we come to know of his views and attitudes, of his conservatism and orthodoxy, from what the speaker says about him.

Spring time Repairs: Attitude of the poet and the New England Farmer:

The speaker in the poem, the poet himself, and his neighbour get together every spring to repair the stone wall between their respective properties. The neighbour, an old England farmer, seems to have a deep-seated faith in the value of walls and fences. He declines to explain his belief and only reiterates his father’s saying, “Good fences make good neighbours.”

Enigmatic Attitude of the Speaker:

Yet, the speaker’s attitude is also enigmatic and in some respects primitive. He seems to be in sympathy with some elemental forces of nature which denies all boundaries. It is suggested that there is some supernatural power at work in Nature, that is against all fences and walls:
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;

Points of View portrayed in the Poem:

The poem portrays a clash between two points of view, and it may, therefore seem that its meaning is the solution. The poem leads one to ask, which of the two is right, the speaker or his Yankee neighbour? Should man tear down the barriers which isolate individuals from one another, or should he recognize that distinctions and limits are necessary for human life? Frost does not really provide an answer. He pictures it with an incident from rural life, and in order to reveal its complex nature he develops it through the conflict of two opposed points of view.

Paradox in the Poem:

The real strength and effectiveness of the poem arises from the contradiction and clash of opposites. The strength of the poem rests upon the contradiction expressed in its two famous lines:
The poem maintains that: Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.
But it also insists that: Good fences make good neighbours.

The contradiction is logical, for the opposing statements are uttered by two different types of people and both are right. Man cannot live without walls, boundaries. Limits and particularly self-limitations; yet, he resents all bounds and is happy at the downfall of any barrier.

Conclusion:

The poem represents two opposing attitudes towards life – one is the surrender to the natural forces which draws human beings together, and the other, - the conservatism which persists in keeping up the distinctions separating them. The poem reveals the characteristic features of Frost’s style – colloquial and dramatic, in presentation.

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