Summary of Mending Wall by Robert Frost

Lines 1-9: The narrator expresses his wonder about a phenomenon, through these lines, that he
has observed in nature. He says that he has observed something mysterious takes place in nature
which does not love the existence of walls. That something makes the frozen ground to bloat
under the wall and topple the stone wall on the boundary of his property. Hence, a gap is created
in the wall through which two people can pass together. Robert Frost says that sometimes even
careless hunters damage the walls but he drives them away and repairs the gap. The hunters pull
down the stones of the walls. This way they search for rabbits hiding under the wall to please
their barking dogs.

Lines 9-22: The poet rehearses the mystery of the wall. He says that no one has seen or heard the
noise when the gaps in the walls are made. But these gaps are realities which are found during
the spring when it is time for mending walls. The narrator makes his neighbour go beyond the
hill to see the conditions there. One day, the narrator along with his neighbour decides to walk
along the wall which separates their properties. They find stones fallen on the ground while they
are walking. They pick up those stones from their respective sides. Some stones are shaped in
bread loaves or some are shaped in round balls. Hence, the narrator and his neighbour are unable
to put those stones back in their position. The narrator feels they need to use some kind of magic
to put the stones back on the wall. During the process of handling the stones, their fingers are
chapped and they feel tired. But the narrator and the neighbour look at it as an outdoor game, a
kind of net game, where the wall acts like a net and the narrator and his neighbour are opponents.

Lines 22-36: The narrator tries to convince his neighbour that the wall is of no need because the
narrator has an apple orchard while the neighbour own pine trees. He says that the apples that
grow in his orchard would not trespass and eat the cones of his pine trees. To this, the neighbour
replies, Good fences make good neighbours. The narrator is not sure whether he can put an idea
into the neighbours mind- the idea why good fences are required to keep cows at bay. If there
are no cows, fences are not needed either. The narrator tells that if he has to ever build a wall, he
will ask himself whom he will be protecting by constructing a wall and whether the wall will
offend anyone. He believes that there is something that does not love walls and wants it to be
pulled down.

Lines 37-46:
The narrator tells his friend that he believes some non-human entity like elves break the walls.
The elves are tiny, supernatural beings from folklore and myth. But then the narrator changes his
opinion and feels that it may not be the work of the elves but the power in nature which works
against building of walls and barriers. The narrator sees his neighbour holding firmly a stone
looking like an ancient stone-age man, armed to fight. The narrator feels that his neighbour is
living in the darkness of ignorance. His neigbour does not want to go against his fathers words
that good fences make good neighbours. Thinking for a while, his neighbour reiterates that
Good fences make good neighbours.
Robert Frost

The most of American of poets, Robert Frost was recognized not in his own country, but abroad,
and his first two books were published in England. He never entered a competition and did not
believe in prize contests yet the Pulitzer Prize for the best poetry of the year was awarded to him
for four times. President Kennedy called Robert Frost, The great American poet of our time

How he uses nature: His poetry and subject of poetry talk about mans existence in the Natural
world. There is almost nothing of the mystic in Frost. There is nothing platonic in his view of life.
Frost believes that man should live in harmony with nature and not go against nature or natural
process. He uses simple things and worlds in his poems. In our day to day life we shown so many
natural things which cannot avoid by us and this things frost use in his poetry with have very deep
and symbolic meaning.
Importance of Nature in Mans life: So many literary writers uses Nature is their work.
Nature is permanent, human being cannot change nature. Ward nature has very broad meaning.
It changes automatically and it changes every day. In the works of art, nature generally functions
as background of place and time, obviously literature has considered as important things in
environment. So Nature is important in humans life and interesting subject of literary writers
also.
Robert Frost As Symbolist

Symbolism in general means a veiled or oblique mode of communication. A poem may have a
surface meaning but it may also have deeper significance which is understood only through a closer
scrutiny of the poem. Many of R. Frosts poems are capable of a symbolic interpretation.

The surface meaning of Mending Wall, for instance is: Good Fences make good neigbours.
But symbolically the poem states one of the serious problems of our times. Should natural
boundaries be made stronger for our protection, or should they be removed because they restrict
our progress towards international brotherhood?

The Road Not Taken, symbolically deals with the choice of poet faced with two different lines
of poetic development.
Stopping By Woods is a symbolic statement of the conflict which everyone has felt between
the demands of practical life, with its obligations to others, and the poignant desire to escape into
a land of day-dreaming and reverie. The dark woods silently filling up with coldness of snow
symbolizes death, which have a strange attraction for the speaker of the poem. But the speaker
turns away from the call of woods, because he decides with certain weariness and yet with quiet
determination to face the needs and demands of life.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

In Stopping By Woods on the snowy evening, Frost has created a new kind of symbolism out of
out-dated conventional pastoralism. As Lynen says, The indirect and subtly suggestive quality
of its symbolism results from his preference for implication rather than explicit statement. He
does not interpret the scene; he uses it as the medium through which to review the reality.

Fact and Fancy in Robert Frosts Poetry

Fact and fancy are beautifully mingled in the lyrics of Robert Frost. Nothing escapes his
observation, and nothing prevents him from speculating upon what he observes. In Stopping By
Woods, Robert Frost mixes up the fact and fancy, feeling of enjoying beautiful scenes of woods,
escaping from reality, engrossed in such lovely scenes but at the same time, realization of demands
and responsibilities of practical and real life which prevents him to entertain himself with these
captivating scenes, away from reality.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep

But I have promises to keep,

And miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.

Lyrical Quality In Robert Frosts Poetry

The essential feature of a lyric is its musicality, and a lyric achieves its musical effects by
traditional techniques of meter, rhyme, and stanzaic patterns. Much of Robert Frosts reputation is
based on such lyrics as Stopping By Woods and The Road Not Taken. Frost not only extended the
subject-matter of lyric-poetry but also brought extraordinary sophistication and originality to it.
Frost cared much for the sound or tune of thing in a poem was the sound of the talking voice.

Robert Frost As A Modern Poet Or Experimentalist

Robert Frosts poetry is abound with all ingredient of modernity because he continually proceeds
his experiments in his laboratories to devise new technique or form of poetry. His lyricism,
symbolism, realism, colloquialism, character-portrayal with narrative skill and dramatic touch,
psychological analysis, naturalism, moral didacticism, sense of duality (union of form and content)
lucidity, profundity, subtlety, dealing with subject or mans social dilemma (painful sense and
uncertainty), all these ingredients (features of his poetry are sufficient evidence of his modernity
or experimentalism.

Self-revelation in Robert Frosts Poetry

Robert Frost like all true poets reveals himself in everything he writes. As Ezra Pound says, One
reads the book for the tone which is homely and pleasing, never doubting that it comes direct
from his own experience.

Metaphysical Elements In Robert Frosts Poetry

Robert Frost is a metaphysical poet in the tradition of Emerson and Emily Dickenson. This means
that he tries to go beyond the seen to unseen. As in all great metaphysical poetry, the tension
increases between the simple feet and the mystery which surrounds it, until the total meaning
flashes in the final morals.

Irony In Robert Frosts Poetry

At its best, Frosts irony is the sharpest of poetic weapons; at its worst, it is the forgivable pun
of a wise old duffer.
Two Ways Of Looking At Robert Frost

According to Randel Jarrell, Robert Frost may be looked at in two ways. There is the Frost that
everybody knows; and there is the Frost no one even talks about. The Frost that everybody knows
is the poet who has written good puns that ordinary readers understand without any trouble and
that they like. This easy side of Robert Frost is most attractive to academic readers. At the same
time, side of Frost is responsible for his being neglected or depreciated by intellectuals.

Robert Frost As Philosophical Poet

There is no doubt that Robert Frost has written a large number of poems which are essentially
philosophical. By philosophical poetry, of course, we mean the poetry that raises the fundamental
questions about life and death and mans destiny in this universe. Whether philosophical poetry
also gives answers to such questions, and whether the answers of given are satisfactorily, is a
different consideration altogether. Robert Frost does certainly raise philosophical questions,
though his answers are vague and ambiguous.