Good A Critical Reading Of Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” Essay Example

“Mending Wall” is one of the best known poems from the collection, North of Boston written by the renowned American poet Robert Frost. The poem, though presents a simple concept, definitely has several underlying significant issues. “Mending Wall” can be called an allegory as Frost has permeated the poem with words that carry abundant meanings. “Mending Wall” is about the relevance and significance of the stone walls built in between properties as boundaries. Such a wall separates the speaker’s plot from the neighbor’s and the speaker fails to find the exact necessity for the wall as there are no cows for both of them. There are only pine and apple trees in the plot and the speaker feels perplexed when he finds the dividing wall. But the neighbor, then pronounces the oft quotes proverbial lines:“Good fences make good neighbors”(Robert Frost Line 27 610). The neighbor claims that a good fence keeps the world firmly at bay with negligible impediments.  The poem explicates the presence of two types of people: wall builders and wall breakers. The creation and demolition take place hand in hand. The first type obstinately insists on constructing superfluous walls with banalities as their validation and the second type do not believe in creating boundaries. There is certainly an ambiguity with respect to the speaker’s inclination as to his disapproval of the stone wall. The speaker approaches his neighbor to fix an appointment so that both of them can repair and fix the wall together. At the same time, he displays his disgust in raising the walls and defining boundaries. The irony is that two people work harmoniously together to build a wall that rather separates them and the speaker, though criticizes his neighbour for defending the need for boundaries, he quite astonishingly initiates the act of mending the wall.
The poem is a dramatic irony that portrays the speaker’s perception of the neighbor’s insularity that has two diverse sides.The standpoint of the speaker begins to be destabilizedwhen he fails to comprehend the inferences of his own words: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;/ And makes gaps even two can pass abreast (Lines 1-4, 610). The poet here refers to the nature’s disapproval and hatred of man’s creation that ultimately destroys both nature and man. The speaker goes to the extend of calling the neighbor as “an old-stone savage”(Line 40, 610), while he himself, quite paradoxically, initiates in repairing the damaged wall.
Walls, both literally and metaphorically, mark the basic establishment of the society. Frost deals with a major social problem without diminishing the aesthetic charm and appeal of the poem.The walls symbolize the rules and laws and mending walls suggest justice. The civil liberties of the individual are confirmed through the assertion of other persons’ privileges which also determines the profit of the community. The poem does not attempt to find a proper solution or reveal a possible explanation as to the need of walls. The narrator even acts as a fence-builder which remains a paradox. The poem is not alone just about creation and destruction. Frost attempts to explore the question of confines and their worth. Fences restrain, but at times, they inspire liberty and efficiency by contributing exciting bases for people to work and lead fruitful lives.

Works Cited

McMahan, Elizabeth, and Susan Day. Literature and the Writing Process. 10th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1996. Print.