Close Reading of Mending Wall

Robert Frost's Mending Wall provides insight to the thoughts of a landowner on the stone wall that separates his property from his neighbor's. It is clear the narrator is cognizant of the dividing force of this wall, forcing him to question the validity of the partition. After much circumspect evaluation and consideration, Frost comes to the conclusion that "Something there is that doesn't love a wall." This resolution sprouts from his realization that the physical barrier is useless in this specific scenario and brings about unintended repercussions

Close Reading Questions:

1. How is the title of the poem working? What information is it giving? How would the poem be different with a different title?

A: The title of the poem, Mending Wall, provides the reader with the focus of the poem, of course being the wall. However, what is also essential about the title is how the narrator and his neighbor engage in mending the wall every spring. The poem would be different with a different title because it wouldn't focus on how this barrier is given so much attention and time although it serves almost no purpose.

2. List all of words you don’t know, or think you don’t know. Look them up in the dictionary. Write them down.

A: Abreast- side by side and facing something the same way

3. Read the poem out loud. What sounds do you notice in the poem? Is there rhyme? Are there any repeated sounds? Write down the sounds you hear at work in the poem.
A: There is no rhyme because Frost wrote the poem in blank-verse. There aren't any repeating sounds I could notice but the author does make sure to repeat his neighbor's opinion on the wall; "Good fences are good neighbors," as well as his own opinion of the wall; "Something there is that doesn't love a wall."

4. What is literally happening in the poem? Write a paragraph describing what is going on. Where is this happening? Who are the people in the poem? Is there action, plot? Do the people do stuff?

A: The landowner/narrator is meeting with his neighbor for what they consider "mending-time," which is when they meet at the stone wall in their backyard and restore the stones that have fallen out. This is important because it allows the narrator to realize the futility in his acts, mentioning how the fences aren't being used to separate cattle and only face destruction by hunters and rabbits while existing only to divide apple and pine trees which can surely be distinguished. 

5. What are the images in the poem? List five images you see in detail. What do you know about them? How is the poem using imagery?

A: -"We wear our fingers rough with handling them"
     -"He is all pine and I am apple orchard."
-"Where there are cows? But here there are no cows."
  -"That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it"
-"We keep the wall between us as we go."
The imagery is used to depict what is going in the poem but also to guide the reader in the same thought process as Frost. The innocent and artistic mentioning of the pine trees and apple trees displays the ridiculousness in a wall that separates two things already easily identified as different. Wearing hands until roughness depicts the hard work and labor needed to maintain such a futile and unnecessary barrier. The depiction of cows makes the reader think of the true need for fences, which is essentially to retain something within the fence, but that doesn't prove to be the case in this situation. Keeping the wall between them as they work forces the reader to visualize an image of working apart on the same goal, rather than together although they essentially are working together.

6. What do you know about the speaker? List ten facts you can infer from what the speaker says in the poem.

A: The speaker is a landowner, lives somewhere rural, he owns apple trees, he has an opposing viewpoint than his neighbor, it snows wherever the speaker lives, the speaker has a stone wall in his yard, he doesn't like fixing the wall, the wall is hard work to fix, there's rabbits where the speaker lives, hunters go near the speaker's house

7. Write a paragraph describing the tone of the poem. Remember, tone is the speaker’s attitude toward his/her subject. Most attitudes in poetry will be complex, i.e. more that one attitude. List 10 words you think helps set this tone.

A: When starting the poem the tone is innocent, with a slight apprehension at the first line, reflecting on how the damage to the wall is generated by nature (frozen-ground-swell under it, upper boulders in the sun). These are things that can't be helped, but then the tone shifts when the speaker reflects on the damages caused by the hunter, growing more dark and continuing when meeting his neighbor. As they take on the task of repairing the wall, the grows lighthearted for the childlike play quality of the mission at hand. This changes once the speaker begins questioning the need for the wall, shifting the tone to perplexed and truly interested while also tying in the realization of the first line. At the end of the poem, the tone is slightly defeated when the neighbor refuses to doubt his father's words and comes to the same resolution as before, foreboding the ignorance that causes the division. 

8. Does the poem have a formal structure? If not, what effect does the lack of structure have? If so, what effect does the structure have on the meaning of the poem?

A: The poem has the 14-line structure of a sonnet but does not share the same rhyme scheme. It grants the poem a classically structured and familiar format but with a different spin. 

9. Where does the tension lie in the poem? Poetic tension can come in many forms. Is there any conflict in the plot/action of the poem? Do images form a tension? Does the speaker and/or tone create tension in the poem? List three poetic tensions you see at work.

A: One of the most pivotal poetic tensions that occurs is when the speaker begins his barrage of questioning for the existence fo the wall, referencing the absence of cows and only the presence of two distinctly different trees. Another important poetic tension is when the speaker asks his neighbor why these fences make good neighbors to which his neighbor recedes to thoughts of comfort rather than become involved in the questions. The poetic tension that is created at the ending of the poem when the speaker makes sure to exemplify his neighbor's movements in darkness and "like an old-stone savage armed"is also important because it depicts the neighbor choosing to stick to old, archaic thinking rather than engage in question.

10. Are there any images, phrases, words, and sounds in the poem that you can't shake out of your head? List three that resonate with you.

A:                                         "Something there is that doesn't love a wall" 

That line sticks with me because of the simple truth within it. Something about the menacing nature of a wall or fence, the separation it creates, and the unnaturalness of the divide, even when nothing is said, there is something that doesn't love a wall.

"He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

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 one sticks with me because it sort of depicts a slight reluctance from the neighbor before he repeats his father's saying. As if he begins questioning but truly recedes in thought to what he is used to, what makes him comfortable.

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

This one sticks with me because its simplicity provokes a complex set of thoughts that still come to a simple conclusion. That the physical barrier of the wall is unnecessary because their differences are so easily evident.

My understanding of this poem expanded in that, I first thought Frost simply understood the great divide a physical partition such a wall could bring, whether socially, mentally, or physically. Frost utilizes subtle yet vivid imagery to engage the reader while also making his case for the disdain he retains for the wall. He even provides a case for how ignorance can be dangerous when finishing the poem and writing "He moves in darkness as it seems to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father's saying"