Mending+Wall

Mending Wall By: Robert Frost page 1002-1003

code format="verse_text" 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. The work of hunters is another thing:            5 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, No one has seen them made or heard them made,        10 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 between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go. 15 To each the boulders that have fallen to each. And some are loaves and some so nearly balls We have to use a spell to make them balance: "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!" We wear our fingers rough with handling them. 20 Oh, just another kind of outdoor 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           25 And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him. 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: "//Why// do they make good neighbors? Isn't it    30 Where there are cows?  But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offense. Something there is that doesn't love a wall,        35 That wants it down." I could say "Elves" to him, But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather He said it for himself. I see him there, Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. 40 He moves in darkness as it seems 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." 45

The author of "Mending Wall" was Robert Frost. He was born in March of 1874 an died in January of 1963. He wrote a lot about realistic depictions of the rural life which made him one of Americans most famous poets. He wrote a lot about things going on in New England because he movedthere when he was 11. He had jobs but did not enjoy them because his true love was writing poems. His family had lots of mental illness and his sister and daughter were committed to mental hospitals.
 * Author**

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The poem "Mending Wall" is a Dramatic Narrative. It's a dramatic because it was dialog and characters. But it's also a narrative because it tells a story. The story is about a stone wall that is in between two properties the guy "speaker" doesn't understand why there is a wall because it really has no point. So he asks the neighbor if they can take it down and he says "Good fences make good neighbors". And the setting takes place in the New Englandish area. The characters are the narrator. It's dramatic because it uses dialog to show the characters talking about the fence.
 * Genre**

The poem "Mending Wall" is all one stanza and is in blank verse. Blank verse has a regular rhythm of ten syllables to a line; an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. This contributes to the poems meaning because it makes it easy to read and as you read it you flow through the poem.
 * Form**

Example of blank verse from Macbeth: I conjure you, by that which you profess, Howe'er you come to know it, answer me:  

Mending Wall Example:  Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it

These two poems both use 10 syllables per line and have an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. There isn't a lot of imagery in the poem "Mending Wall", but in the beginning Robert Frost compares stones to loaves and heavy balls. He also says that you need to use a spell to make them balance. On lines 16 to 18 Frost says "To each the boulders that have fallen to each./And some are loaves and some so nearly balls/ We have to use a spell to make them balance" (Frost 1002). This is visual imagery because it uses mental pictures that create a mental picture. media type="file" key="Mending Wall.mov"
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"**Figurative Language"**

Mending Wall uses similes and apostrophes.

Simile Example- " like an old-stone savage armed " Uses like to compare two things

Apostrophe- "speaking to the stones that make up the barrier, he says, "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!" " He is talking to the object as if it were a real person.

Walls DO Make Good Neighbors- By: D.O.

Indeed good fences do make good neighbors. The wall is completely necessary in order to keep everything untarnished. The neighbor is simply trying to say that he wants his privacy and that he will talk to you when he wants to talk to you. Fences are important boundaries that keep honest people honest. When the neighbor says “good fences make good neighbors" (Frost 1003) he wants to be friends but he still can not be trusted. If you need a good neighbor you could just build a fence…

There was no rhyme scheme in the poem "Mending Wall", but there was repetition. On lines 1 and 35 it says "Something there is that doesn't love a wall,". This is a very important line in the poem and that is why it is repeated. Other devices of sound are just the two men talking. The man that wants the wall says: "Good fences make good neighbors." twice which is also repetition.
 * Devices of Sound**

Analytical Paragraphs In the poem "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost there is a pointless wall seperating two neighbors. The wall falls down every winter because it is not mortared together, so moisture in the ground freezes and makes the earth expand, causing the wall to fall. The narrorater of the poem thinks the wall is stupid and doesn't need to be there since his neighbor has to repair it every spring. On page 1003 the narrorater says, "before I built a wall I'd ask to know/ what I was walling in or walling out" (Frost 1003). This quote shows thatthe wall was pointless because it wan't keeping anything in or out. The narrorater tries to explain that the wall doesn't keep anything in or out when he says, "My apple trees will never get across" (Frost 1003). Overall the wall in the poem "Mending Wall" is pointless because it doesn't need to be there and falls down every winter.

