1. REMAN SHERGILL JOHN FORD JOHN LOPEZ ANGEL Mending Walls by Robert Frost

2. Structure The poem is written in blank verse meaning there is no rhyme or rhythm making the poem awkward and choppy Loosely follows iambic pentameter. The majority of the lines contain 10 syllables (in a true iambic pentameter form) but there are ten lines that contain eleven. When we encounter the lines they momentarily throw of the internal rhythm and makes us pay extra attention to the lines All the words are short with only one or two syllables but the exception is in line 21 and 5 the word being “another” No stanza breaks

3. Summary “Mending Wall” opens with the speaker explaining that his property is separated from his neighbor's by a stone wall that is constantly being dismantled by “something that doesn't love a wall.” This something that disrupts the wall remains somewhat vague throughout the poem The task of mending the wall is difficult and because nothing in their properties poses a threat to the others, the speaker tries to convince his neighbor that there is no need to continue to fix the wall. The neighbor, however, is unconvinced by the speaker's reasoning and in response simply utters “good fences make good neighbors.” The speaker tells his neighbor that rational people should know exactly what they are keeping in and keeping out when they build a wall, yet again the neighbor resists the speaker's reasoning. The poem ends with the neighbor repetition of the phrase that “good fences make good neighbors.”

4. Analysis Lines 1-4 “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 abreast.” By using “something” instead of someone the speaker suggests that there is a thing in humans or simply in nature that is against “walls.” The boulder begins to crumble by natural causes. Winter is the prime suspect of breaking the wall. As a result of said natural action the wall has gaps big enough that can only be repaired by two people.

5. Analysis Lines 5-9 “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, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,” In addition to the something alluded to in line 1, the speaker tells us that hunters could be a culprits as well. However, their work is very different from the something’s wall-destroying techniques. He says, “I have come after them” instead of “I came after them,” giving us the impression that this is a common occurrence. Rabbits like to hide inside the wall from hunters and in turn the hunters tear down walls to search for them

6. Analysis Lines 10-15 “No one has seen them made or heard them made, But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall the line And set the wall between us once again We keep the wall between us as we go.” The speaker reminds us of the mysterious “something” that destroys the wall and this “something” is so covert that no one else sees or hears it making gaps in the wall. The speaker travels to the neighbors house every spring to inform him that the wall needs repairing. The two walk the whole length of the wall which separates their land. Each walking on their side of the wall as they go.

7. Analysis Lines 16-19 “To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are leaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: ‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!” As they walk along they pick boulders that have fallen to their side, but the speaker and his neighbor have a difficult time putting the some boulders into other wall. The process of replacing the little boulders is so frustrating that the pair begin taking small rocks and using them to balance the boulders as if they were using a “spell”. The speaker and his neighbor wish for the boulders to stay in place but know when their backs are turned it will soon fall apart.

8. Analysis Lines 20-26 “We wear our fingers rough with handling them. Oh, just another kind of out- door game, One on a side. It comes to little more: There where it is we do not need the wall: 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.” As the speaker and his neighbor walk along the wall repairing it their hands become callus and rough. The speaker compares the whole process to a game, like volleyball. The wall is like a net, and the speaker and his neighbor are the opposing teams. The speaker says that such a ritual is unnecessary and is little more than a game with no deeper purpose. The speaker indicates that the “precious” wall, is actually unneeded now we find that the speaker isn’t really into the wall itself. He wants to convince his neighbor that the wall is plain unnecessary. He explains that the apples that he grows will not cross the “line” between their properties and disturb the pine trees which grow on the other side.

9. Analysis Lines 27-29 “He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’ Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder if I could put a notion in his head:” In response to the speakers suggestion the neighbor simply says “Good fences make good neighbors.” The speaker becomes a bit troublesome, he desperately wants to stir the pot and challenges that “good fences make good neighbors”. He wishes that he can somehow inspire his neighbor to rethink the idea of repairing the wall.

10. Analysis Lines 30-36 “Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it Where there there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I’s ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down. I could say Elves’ to him” The speaker understands the neighbor’s philosophy, if one person has cows and wants to keep them contained. But there are none We infer that the wall was never his idea to build, it was his neighbor's. He tells us that, if he ever builds a wall, he will first ask what purpose does it serve.

11. Analysis Lines 37-40 “But its not elves exactly, and I'd rather He sais it for himself. I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.” The speaker can tell his neighbor that elves are destroying the wall, but he knows that they aren’t, and wants his neighbor to come up with some silly explanation on his own. He wants his neighbor to lighten up, and question the real necessity of keeping a wall between them. As the neighbor holds onto a stone the speaker thinks of him as a simple- minded caveman.

12. Analysis Lines 41-45 “He moves in darkness as it seemed to me, Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He will not go behind his father’s saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says again, “Good fences make good neighbors.” The neighbor doesn’t only look a bit like an old- stone savage but there’s also a darkness inside him. We learn that the neighbors phrase actually isn’t his own, but was instilled into him by his father. When the speaker tells us this we see that his neighbor as a man of traditional and old-schools rules.