Mending Wall

Sometimes, as traditions pass through generations, they lose their original value. The tradition can be as simple as the lighting of birthday candles to the explosion of fireworks on the fourth of July. When the traditions began they most likely had a significant meaning, but as it handed down it only signifies something that has to be done. In the poem “Mending Wall” written by Robert Frost, the two characters focus on repairing a wall that seemingly has no purpose. The speaker and his neighbor meet once a year to repair the wall, but this spring something different occurs, the speaker starts to question the significance of the wall. Robert Frost suggests that some traditions no longer hold meaning, but continues to be carried out without
The speaker and the neighbor annually meet and repair the wall but they never have physical contact with each other; “We keep the wall between us as we go” (line 15). The wall represents the physical and mental barrier between the speaker and the neighbor in the poem. Although the speaker questions the reasoning for the wall, he does not act on his thoughts. The speaker continues to follow the tradition while trying to make his neighbor realize that the existence of the wall does not benefit either of them. The neighbor only responds to the questions asked by saying, “Good fences make good neighbors” (27). The neighbor represents the people within society that still cling to tradition. The neighbor’s response seems robotic and rehearsed like that is the only justification for the wall: that it makes a good
The poem consists of forty five lines and it has no stanza breaks, this creates a long continuous series of lines. The poem continuously repeats the same message as it flows from line to line, in relation to a wall or fence that keeps going and never ceases to fulfil its job. The chunk of words that make up the poem also resembles the chunk of stone that makes up the stone wall. Robert Frost built on the importance of the wall by constructing this poem to represent one like the wall that is repaired in the poem. Along with the structure of the poem, Robert Frost uses the repetition of “Good fences make good neighbors” (27) multiple times. The unnatural syntax in this line is used throughout the story, and it creates an uncomfortable tension that produces an eerie feeling. This line brings about the question of what actually makes a good neighbor and it also seems to have a mocking