Robert Frost – North of Boston Mending Wall – After Apple-Picking

A layer of Frost… Born in San Francisco – 1874 Moved to Mass at age 11 1 semester at Dartmouth. Dropped out to be teacher and journalist Attended Harvard, but no degree Married co-valedictorian Elinor White

A layer of Frost… Wrote several works, few published Moved to England in 1912 Returned to USA in 1915 A Boy’s Will and North of Boston established Frost

Mending Wall “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,” “Good fences makes good neighbors,” - Two different ideas. - One neighbor wants the wall. The other sees no reason for a wall.

“The work of the hunters is another thing” “And on a day we meet to walk the line” “Oh, just another kind of out-door game, one on a side” “ He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him” “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What was I walling in or walling out”

Questions What do you think the wall symbolizes? Which attitude towards the wall do you support?

After Apple-Picking “My two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree Toward heaven still,” “And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill” “My instep arch not only keeps the ache” “For I have had too much Of apple-picking; I am overtired” “Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall” “Long sleep, as I describe its coming on, Or just some human sleep.”

Questions What is this man embracing? Was the apple-picker satisfied?