Mending Wall by Robert Frost: Analysis
Analysis of the Poem “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost
This poem is about a time when the author went up to fix the stone wall that stood between his property and his neighbors. The poem talks about the experience and the authors thoughts about the experience.
“something there is that doesn’t love a wall” The author is wondering, probably as he travels to the wall, what it is that might destroy a wall. What exists that does not want a wall to stand.
“that sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, and spills the upper boulders in the sun and makes gaps even two can pass abreast” Here the author is talking about small streams or settled ground water that run beneath the walls in places. In the winter the water freezes and displaces stones forcing sections of the wall to collapse. These sections of collapsed wall often start small but as the winter passes and water freezes and thaws in the weakened areas the walls further deteriorate to the point where two people could walk through the wall shoulder to shoulder.
“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, to please the yelping dogs ” Sometimes, while hunting rabbits, the rabbits would attempt to hide in the stone walls between properties. The hunters will take the section of the wall where they believe the rabbit to be hiding apart meticulously, stone by stone, to get to the rabbit. The dogs that accompany hunters will chase the rabbits to the walls and bark endlessly until the rabbit is revealed and allowed into their waiting jaws, silencing their protests.
“the gaps I mean, no one has seen them made or heard them made, but at spring mending time we find them there” The author spent several years living on a farm in New Hampshire. During the winter in these areas it is rare that people will travel through the snow to these walls bordering their properties, so the damage that is done to them, whether by nature or
This poem is about a time when the author went up to fix the stone wall that stood between his property and his neighbors. The poem talks about the experience and the authors thoughts about the experience.
“something there is that doesn’t love a wall” The author is wondering, probably as he travels to the wall, what it is that might destroy a wall. What exists that does not want a wall to stand.
“that sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, and spills the upper boulders in the sun and makes gaps even two can pass abreast” Here the author is talking about small streams or settled ground water that run beneath the walls in places. In the winter the water freezes and displaces stones forcing sections of the wall to collapse. These sections of collapsed wall often start small but as the winter passes and water freezes and thaws in the weakened areas the walls further deteriorate to the point where two people could walk through the wall shoulder to shoulder.
“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, to please the yelping dogs ” Sometimes, while hunting rabbits, the rabbits would attempt to hide in the stone walls between properties. The hunters will take the section of the wall where they believe the rabbit to be hiding apart meticulously, stone by stone, to get to the rabbit. The dogs that accompany hunters will chase the rabbits to the walls and bark endlessly until the rabbit is revealed and allowed into their waiting jaws, silencing their protests.
“the gaps I mean, no one has seen them made or heard them made, but at spring mending time we find them there” The author spent several years living on a farm in New Hampshire. During the winter in these areas it is rare that people will travel through the snow to these walls bordering their properties, so the damage that is done to them, whether by nature or