Mending the Wall Robert Frost Style

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Mending the Wall Robert Frost Style “Good fences make good neighbors,” (Page 842) Robert Frost constructs the poem Mending Wall around the design barriers inspire people and brings them closer together. This poem discusses barriers and the advantages and disadvantages that they offer. What could Frosts implications about barriers be implying? The title itself offers insight into the meaning of the poem; mending is currently defined by Webster’s as to free from faults and defects. Webster also defines a wall as a high thick masonry structure forming a long rampart or an enclosure chiefly for defense – often used in the plural (Merriam-Webster). The definition of wall supports the idea, “Good fences make good neighbors,” because walls currently are created for defense. This defense system is what keeps the neighbors at peace with each other. Even when the speaker questions this idea, “Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.” (Page 842). This states the history of walls, when first constructed their soul purpose was to keep cows on the owners property so conflict would rise with the neighboring people. The mending of the wall brings the neighbors closer together contradicting the antisocialism that naturally comes with walls. The speaker even initiates the act first and takes walks along the wall throughout the year suggesting the speaker is more engrained in this tradition than his neighbor. The speaker points out all of the destruction that happens to the wall within the year in the beginning of the poem and natures rebellion against the walls exceeding existence, “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,” (Page 841) The poem continues on to mention the interactions the neighbor and the speaker have, their talks about the

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