Category: Mending Wall

“No man is an island, entire of himself”. Robert Frost’s ‘The Mending Wall’ and “The Tuft of Flowers”, is a comment on the nature of the individual and its ability to co-exist and interact with others. He examines the way in which we interact with one another and at times, fail to do so. Frost seems to believe that the world is often one of isolation.

The modern man finds it difficult to communicate with one another and fails to relate. Moreover, during the period of time prior to World War 1 (1914-1918) during which these poems were written, tensions over war and political instability grew, this instigated the avoidance of communication with individuals with contrasting beliefs. Yet we looked for others to help such as political leaderships.

As a result, we have a tendency to shut ourselves from others yet in doing so we yearn for the accompaniment of others. These concepts of isolation and desire for accompaniment are effectively conveyed in the message Robert Frost attempts to communicate through “The Tuft of Flowers”. As the poem opens, the solitude of the speaker is evident, it is a loneliness more profound than the temporary loneliness of a morning spent unaccompanied.

Rather it is the slow drift into almost paralysis of consciousness, where the speaker is mesmerised by the thought of the labour of haymaker- “I looked for him behind an isle of trees; I listened for his whetstone on the breeze.” The use of repetitive use of personal pronouns of ‘I looked for him’ and ‘I listened for’, emphasizes this disconnect. This is also suggested by the dash between ‘been’ and ‘alone’ in the last couplet, which almost seems to constitute a sigh.

Moreover the harmonious tone of the iambic rhythm contradicts this pursuit of the mind, almost mocking the detached reality of the speaker, perhaps symbolizing Frost’s mockery of the way in which we attempt to interact with one another which seems to be of prominence throughout this poem. The isolation of the individual is also apparent in the poem; ‘Mending Wall’ in which Frost’s illustrates man’s necessity for barriers to isolate themselves from their fellow men.

However rather than the persona longing for a sense of accompaniment as in “The Tuft of Flowers”, the persona in “Mending Wall” is sceptical on the necessity for human isolation and questions the role of walls in his life. Frost’s use of language in “Mending Wall” reinforces the idea of isolation. The narrator defines his neighbor’s place as being ‘beyond the hill’, further highlighting the concept isolation. The two men’s detachment is obvious, both physically and mentally.

Even when the neighbour arrives to join the persona on the fence mending day, he seems to remain distant, describing how the neighbor seems to ‘move in darkness … not of woods only and the shade of trees’. This darkness that seems to shadow him is the eerie representation of an inability to communicate and relate with the persona. “’Good fences make good neighbors,” this aphorism acts as a source of security for the neighbour and avoids attempts to relate to his neighbor.

Robert Frost interprets bad habits such as greed and stubbornness through his comparisons. This is clearly shown in his two poems ‘The Cow in apple time’ which is about a cow, binging on apples and ‘mending wall’ which is about the experience of two neighbors mending a seemingly useless wall. In both of these poems, Robert Frost portrays the gluttony of a cow and the wall building as vices through extended metaphors.

The ‘the cow in apple time’, is not just about a cow acting very gluttonous. This poem represents the greed of countries. Robert Frost’s poem was written a few weeks after the outbreak of WWI and though there is no mention of war, the cow’s actions mock it. For example, the cow leaves a path of destruction; “she needs them bitten when she when she has to fly” (Frost 9). The cow leaves bitten apples when she has to leave. A bitten apple is unusable, destroyed. When the cow leaves, she leaves destruction or unusable apples. Instead of keeping the apples viable, the cow renders the apples useless. This tactic of leaving destruction only benefits the country causing it. On top of that, the cow decides to “make no more of a while then an open gate” for its gluttonous appetite (Frost 2). The cow ignores walls, symbolically borders, to take apples. Robert Frost is referring to the invasions that occur during wars, for greed. The cow also ignores her well-being, when “her udder shrivels and the milk goes dry” (Frost 11). A cow provides for its calves using its udder. Likewise, people suffer because of war. The udder going dry referrers to a country being unable to provide for its people. Just like the cow, a government spends so much money it struggles to provide for its people. When a country’s government has its attention caught by greed, its people suffer. The actions of a cow portray Robert Frost’s interpretation of wars, influenced by WWI. The poem compares the cow to countries during wars, leaving destruction in its path, invading other territories and the people that suffer because of it.

In Robert Frost’s ‘Mending wall’ two neighbors build wall despite not needing it. This stubbornness is the main focus of the poem. The protagonist realizes the uselessness of the wall, but the neighbor insists on building the wall because “he will not go behind his father’s saying” (Frost 43). The neighbor blindly follows his father saying. The stubbornness of the neighbor is the cause of unnecessary turmoil, as the neighbors mend the wall annually. The protagonist also mentions that “He is all pine and I am apple orchard.”( Frost 24). Since there are only trees in each other’s land, the uselessness of the wall is further clarified. When the protagonist inquires, the neighbor only says “good fences make good neighbors” (Frost 29). He only repeats the same line when asked about the purpose of the wall, implying that he doesn’t have an answer. Despite the protagonist’s attempts to convince his neighbor, the neighbor stubbornly stands his ground on the topic. This results in the mending of the wall, a useless task. This situation represents an archaic belief that is illogical in the current situation. This stubbornness Robert Frost portrays can be applied to a plethora of situations.

In his two poems ‘The Cow in apple time’ and ‘mending wall’ Robert Frost portrays the gluttony of a cow and the wall building as vices through extended metaphors. The metaphors portrayed one cows’ desire for apples which was compared to the greed of countries during wartime and the mending of a wall as a stubborn belief. By comparing these bad habits to other situations, Robert Frost makes it easier to apply the message of the story to the reader’s own life.

Robert Frost is known as an “American Poet” and is a writer who can be understood in a variety of lenses. As readers, we are able to focus on Frost’s choice of words, how his lines are delivered, his tone, the symbolism, and the imagery. By understanding the symbolism of the poem we are able to understand the theme of his works. In Robert Frost’s essay, “The Mending Wall,” there are several themes that are apparent such as barrier-building, community vs isolation, and the cycle of seasons and parallelism. With frost introducing us readers to these themes, our understanding of the symbolism of this poem is increased and greatly understood.

In “The Mending Wall”, the theme of barrier-building is apparent in this work because a stone wall is separating the speaker’s property from his neighbors. In the spring, the two meet to walk the wall and jointly make repairs. The speaker sees no reason for the wall to be kept and does not believe in walls for the sake of walls. At the time, there were no cows that needed to be contained, only apples and pine trees. The neighbor resorts to an old adage: “Good fences make good neighbors.” The speaker presses the neighbor to look beyond the old-fashioned foolishness of such reasoning. His neighbor will not be persuaded. The speaker visualizes his neighbor as a holdover from an outdated era, a living example of a dark-age mentality. But the neighbor simply repeats the saying. The two men meet in terms of civility and goodwill to build a barrier between them. They do so out of habit. In the absence of communication, we play the silly game of avoiding any valuable contact with others in order to gain privacy.

‘The Mending Wall’ emphasizes two neighbors who have a lack of communication and who basically live in isolation, at least from one another. For example, in “The Mending Wall”, ‘No one has seen them made or heard them made’ but somehow the gaps expectedly exist and are always found when the two get together. Physically and mentally, the separation between the two is very visible. Even when the neighbor comes from ‘beyond the hill’ on the fence mending day, he remains distant, by far. The author is using the phrase “beyond the hill” which shows isolation through those terms.

In “The Mending Wall,” the theme of the cycle of the seasons is apparent throughout the poem. Frost used several phrases in his work to engage in this theme such as “spring mending-time,’ ‘frozen ground-swell,’ ‘once again,’ ‘spring is the mischief in me.” The spring is the hostile and bad time of year because the gaps in the wall are found during spring. It only makes sense why spring is a good season for this because between the rain, the snow melting, and the plants growing, the wall would even stand a single chance! The best thing that would happen would be that there would be holes all over it. The neighbor believes that having a good stable wall between them creates good boundaries in their relationship. Another theme is parallelism. Sometimes in this poem, this parallelism takes a physical form which would be associated with the wall, as we imagine the two men walking parallel paths. For example, ‘We meet to walk the line. ‘We keep the wall between us as we go.’ ‘One on a side.’ It is not only a physical one but also a mental one as well.

In conclusion, A stone wall is separating the speaker’s property from his neighbor’s. In spring, and only spring, the two meet to walk the wall and together they make repairs. The speaker sees no reason for the wall to be kept because there are no cows to be contained, just apple and pine trees. He does not believe in walls for the sake of walls. The neighbor resorts to an old saying: “Good fences make good neighbors.” The speaker remains unconvinced and mischievously presses the neighbor to look beyond the old-fashioned foolishness of such reasoning. His neighbor will not be swayed. The neighbor simply repeats the adage. The speaker would have us believe that there are two types of people: those who stubbornly insist on building superfluous walls and those who would dispense with this practice. There are several themes shown in this poem, such as barrier-building, community vs isolation and the cycle of seasons and parallelism all which help us to understand the symbolic reasoning behind this poem and why Frost wrote it.

Work Cited

1. Frost, Robert. “Mending Wall.” Poetry For Students, edited by Mary Ruby, vol.5, Gale, 1999. Literary Sources. Accessed 4 April 2020.

Roland Barthes was born on November 12, 1915 at Normandy in France. He was a literary critic, theorist, semiotician and philosopher. Barthes as the French writers, helped in the development of several schools of theory such as anthropology, semiotics, social theory, design theory, structuralism and post-structuralism. He was well recognized in the field of semiotics. The “Combat” was his first literary work which became the foundation for his successive works. ‘Writing Degree Zero’ was his first full-length work which was published in 1953. ‘S/Z’ published in 1970 is one of his most important works and offers a structuralist analysis of ‘Sarrasine’. Apart from being a famous French philosopher, Barthes was also one of the key proponents of Reader-Response Criticism which emerged from his essay, “Death of the Author” published in 1967. This artistic work remained as one of the important literary principles till date. Barthes’ essay argues against traditional literary criticism’s practice of incorporating the intentions and biographical context of an author in an interpretation of a text, and instead argues that writing and creator are unrelated. Roland Barthes in the essay (1967) says, “…the voice loses its origin, the author enters his own death, writing begins”. Therefore, this essay became his tool to attack the traditional literary analysis. This essay is believed to have had a major impression in literary criticism and is considered a masterpiece that helped develop structuralism and post-structuralism ideologies. This paper attempts to analyze subject matter of the poems, traditional literary criticism, death of the author and birth of the reader and, the role reversal of author and reader. An analysis will be done with reference to Robert Frost’s poems “Mending Wall” and “The Road Not Taken”.

The subject matter of the poems are on the purpose of communal existence with values and importance of decision making. The “Mending Wall” literally talks about an issue of having wall which keeps the neighbours divided in the society. It discusses the opposing idea of two neighbours upon the wall. But then it is one way of living which gives harmonious existence in the community. The poetic persona seems to argue that he is against the idea of having a fence where there is no cows. On the other hand, the other neighbour keeps insisting for maintaining the wall annually in which the fence make them a good neighbours. However, the metaphorical concepts of “Mending wall”, could be interpreted in a way reconciling the human relationship between family, society and the country at large. Here, in these poems, Frost has used the wall and the road as symbol to unfold the meaning of the poems. “The Road Not Taken” talks about choices and decision making in life as one often comes across. Decision making is an important aspect of life and people often find it as a difficult task. Many people regret upon making inappropriate decision where they land up in trouble. It specially happens in marriage when one cannot make a decision wisely. This essay will discuss this poem through the lens of “Reader Response theory”. The poem generally speaks about making of wise decision as it is always associate with people. It deliberates about the two roads that go through the forest in which one is less travelled and the other one is often used. The poetic persona chooses the road in the woods that is less travelled which has made difference in his life. On the other hand, the under lying connotation could be on marriage, taking up a new job, joining an adventurous journey, choosing academic courses in colleges and universities, making a critical judgment etc. which would certainly make difference in one’s life if chosen carefully. If not it is very much sure that one has to regret because thing does not give satisfaction. The following lines support this argument, “Two road diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference” (Frost, line: 18-20). However, for some other people, choosing the untrodden road may not make difference, thus, it differs from individual to individual. The Road Not Taken, conveys that one must make a good decision in life for the sake of success and happiness. However, a success and happiness do not always depend in good decision and sometime it might downturn. However, sometimes, it happens as a blessing in disguise and that accomplishment can be equated with that of chosen success and happiness.

Barthes questions the traditional way of studying and analyzing the text which is author-centered in nature. Traditional literary criticism focused too much on the author where he is seen as a medium through which the work is expressed and the meaning of the text was understood from the author’s point of view. Barthes ask readers to adopt a more text oriented approach that focuses on the reader’s interaction, not the writer. For example, Robert frost is a well-known American nature poet and most of his poems are based on the nature themes. As a reader one may conclude or expect to have elements of nature in his poem though the poem may not have it. This is what conventional literary theory emphases upon the author’s context. However, Barthes opposes the idea of author-centric work and says that any literary work should be free of writer’s personalities. In the essay Tradition and Individual Talent, Eliot (1919) stated that a great poetry may be made without the direct used of any emotion, whatever composed without feelings solely. Here, he has emphasized about the theory of impersonality in which he deliberates that the piece of literature should not be influenced by the writer, or a literary work should be free of author’s prejudices. The term ‘author’ is derived from French word ‘auteur’ which means authoritarian. According to the meaning of “author”, a writer should have complete authority over his creation. This is how literature in the past were studied which limited the scope for the readers to create new meaning from the texts. However, Barthes proclaims that author does not have power over his writing, therefore, creator and his creation are considered to be two different entities because the writer and the book become isolated. The “Mending Wall” according to the author, it stands as barrier that keeps the neighbours divided which also engages them in annual reconstruction, thus, he does not want the wall. He expresses his emotions and personalities through this poem. This is evident from the lines:

“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it…

…I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone…” (Frost, 1914, line, 1-7).

This is how an author uses his authority to have control over his work which is full of his personalities. That is why the new critics like Barthes, Eliot and others attacked on the conventional literary theory. This interpretation of the author can have completely different perspective for a reader who does not take the author into consideration. For instance, a reader may interpret the lines as, a challenge faced by a student in order to get through from one to another grade despite hard work. No matter how hard one works by all the possible means but fails as if a teacher does not love and fails him or her. “The task of meaning making falls in the destination of a reader” (Gallix, A. 2010). Through this statement one can understand that Gallix is also inclined towards Barthes’s standpoint. The interpretation of the literature would lie upon author’s context if a reader evaluates the work through author’s prospective. However, he argues that the author has no authority over the literary works once it is published. He further argues that the author does not hold much of the responsibility after the creation of work. While writing, author claim that it is his idea but in fact he borrows the ideas from already existing sources such as literature, arts and so on. He states that when the piece of literary work is created, somehow it exhibits different ideas such as language, culture and beliefs and the work of an author needs to be re-examine for authorship. Therefore, Barthes said that “text is a tissue of citations resulting from thousand source of culture” Barthes, 1967, p. 4).

Roland Barthes highlights another noteworthy argument in his essay and says “the death of author must be ransomed by the birth of the reader” (Barthes, 1967). In this, he allegorically stated that birth of the reader happens at the cost of the death of the author. Since the reader has occupied the place of the author, now reader must shoulder the responsibility of the author creating the meaning of the text. On the other hand, once the piece of writing is published, the choices of interpreting the concept and meaning lies in the reader where one should ignore the presence of the author. As a reader one must read, re-read, interpret and re-interpret the text in order to understand in-depth concept and meaning hence one cannot simply generalize a piece of writing based on the author’s background. For instance, “He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple tree will never get across and eat the cones under his pines” (Frost, 1914, line; 24-26). Based on these lines, one cannot directly conclude that this Mending Wall is about a nature recalling the poet’s context. Through these lines a reader may view it as human relationship and peaceful co-existence which does not know the boundary. The most important aspect of the reader will have to be a careful analysis of the text to create a true meaning and essence of the text. Barthes holds that reader can truly create the multiple meaning for the text than the author. Whenever, the reader approaches the text he should not be preoccupied by the author’s context before reading the text. Likewise, in the poem “The Road Not Taken”, Frost has laid the scope for the readers to comprehend the poem and interpret their understanding because the poem appears bit ambiguous in which reader can take chance to re-interpret it ignoring the poet’s intension. For instance, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both, and be one traveler, long I stood, and look down one as far as I could to where it bent in the under growth” (Frost, 1916, stanza 1). Through this lines, Frost, conveys that in life such critical situation arises in which one cannot decide or choose the options lying before where one needs to make a careful decision what to choose and what not. Then Frost further says that he would share the story of his journey in the times to come with a sigh of satisfaction if he meets with a success, if not with a sigh of regret. This is evident from the line, “I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: … and that has made all the difference”. (Frost, 1916, stanza, 4). In reality it is quite difficult to make a wise decision sometime. People encounter challenges in terms of decision making in life. For instance, marriage, employment, purchasing property and pursuing academic courses etcetera are the critical aspect of life where one needs to make a careful judgment and wise decision. In such cases if one makes quick decision then one may have to face serious consequences.

Barthes’s “Death of the Author” is also a deliberation on the rules of author and reader. His essential argument is that the author has no sovereignty over his own words as they belong to the reader who interpret them once it is published. This means that the author has no control or influence over the readers. He states that when reader encounters a literary manuscript, he need not ask what the author intends to say but the words themselves should speak their meaning. The text employs symbols which are decoded by booklovers and since the purpose of the text is to be read, the author and course of writing becomes irrelevant. This study identifies the reader as an important and dynamic instrument who is accountable to communicate the real meaning of the literary composition. Barthes states that the “meaning of the text neither lies in author nor the text itself rather it lies exclusively upon the reader” (Barthes, 1967). The writer and the text have no authority over giving meaning but reader has power to create it. The readers unfold the meaning of the text by reading, rereading, interpreting and reinterpreting a piece of text. Therefore, Frost states that he took the other road that looks fair enough which gave a better hope to travel through to his destination. This is evident from the line “Then took the other as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear; though as that the passing there had won them really about the same” (Frost, 1916, stanza 2). Barthes proclaims that “birth of the reader must be at the cost of the death of the author”, this statement states a true essence of the theory. According to Barthes, “the intentions of the author becomes irrelevant once the writing is over. The authority to create meaning of the text completely lies upon the readers. For instance, Frost in his “Mending Wall” states that “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 neighbours” (Frost, 1914, line, 43-45). Here, whatever the author’s intention may be but a reader may say that having ‘Wall’ is something a good tradition and value that maintains harmony between the two families or the neighbours. He emphasizes the reader-centered approach in learning and analyzing any literature. If the work is read through the context of the writer then it limits the scope of interpretation by the reader. For instance, it appears like taking photograph of three dimensional object thus reducing it into two dimensions.

To conclude, the essay “Death of the Author” by Roland Barthes discusses primarily on ‘death of the author and the birth of a reader’. Barthes focusses on the importance of the reader response and disregards the author’s message while dealing with any literature. He opposes the traditional method of literary criticism which is grounded with author’s context by putting forward the Reader-response criticism. He believes in impersonality of author while writing any literary composition. He is against the idea of author-centric work which kills the creativity of the readers. In this regard Barthes argues that the writer-centric works limit the scope of the learner’s interaction with the text and creation of meaning. This essay also analyzed the general theme of the poems “Mending Wall” and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. These poems deliberated on co-existence as part of community and making choices and decisions in life. These poems have been analyzed from reader’s point of view. In fact, this theory encourages the reader to come forward to interact with literature of their interest and build their intellectual capacity. Reading is the chief source of learning in order grow rationally and wisely.

Reference

1. Cultural Reader. (2017). Short summary: Death of the Author – Roland Barthes Retrieved on 19/10/2019 from http://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.com/2017/02/roland-barthes-death-of-author-summary.html
2. Ramaswami, S & Seturaman, V.S. (2017). The English Critical Tradition, An Anthology of English Literary Criticism (Volume 2). Tradition and the Individual Talent.
3. Barthes, R. (1967). The Death of the Author. Retrieved on 19/10/2019 from http://www.tbook.constantvzw.org/wp-content/death_authorbarthes.pdf
4. Gallix. A (2010). Analysis of Poem ‘The Road Not Taken’ by Robert Frost Retrieved on 18/10/2019 from https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-The-Road-Not-Taken-by-Robert-Frost
5. The FAMOUS PEOPLE. (n.d). Roland Barthes Biography, Retrieved on 07/10/2019 from https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/roland-barthes-2747.php

The poem “Mending Wall” written by Robert Frost in 1914 is the first piece of work in his second book of poetry “North of Boston,” which was published in 1915. The piece presents a modernist challenge to existing social structures through a depiction of the life of two neighbors who meet every spring to walk along the wall that separates their properties and fix it where needed. The neighbors differ from one another, mainly one is the “old-fashioned” stubborn traditionalist, the other one (the speaker) seems to be a progressive, logic individual. It comes as no surprise then that the traditionalist neighbor is in favor of long established habits without seeming to know the meaning behind them, he repeats his father’s words and still insist on having a wall, something that will separate him and his neighbor. The other one, a progressive individual believes in common sense and logic and questions previously established order of things- the presence of the wall itself. Despite the fact that neighbors disagree on certain aspects, the wall unites them rather than separates them because they work on it together, and it seems to benefit both of them in some ways. In this manner, it could be said that presence of the wall stands for tradition where repairing it represents progress. In his work, Frost highlights the dilemma between tradition and progress and emphasizes how important it is to find a sense of balance between those two.

Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California in 1874 during the period of reconstruction after Civil-war. He was one of the nation’s best-loved American poet and the winner of four Pulitzer Prizes. He is known for works such as “Mending Wall,” “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and “The Road Not Taken,” a poem frequently read at graduation ceremonies. Although there are few aspects that differ Robert Frost from other modernist poets including a rejection of modernist internationalism there is no doubt that his career gained momentum during the modern period and Frost himself falls into category of modern poets (Cox 3). As stated by Reginald L. Cook in The Dimensions of Robert Frost, “the rigor in the discipline came from Frost’s study of the classics while his taste was influenced by the strong current of native realism as well as by the genteel tradition and the Victorians” (Cook 4). Additionally, as James M. Cox editor of Robert Frost A Collection of Critical Essays argues “the discrepancy in age between Frost the man and Frost the poet, his emergence during the interlude between the collapse of the old order and the beginning of the new, and his own experience- all serve to indicate Frost’s ambiguous position in relation to what we call modern literature” (Cox 3). In this manner, Frost’s style of writing could be described as a blend of 19th century tradition and 20th century technique. Frost was a writer who was keen on using various characters and background drawn from New England which set him apart from many modern poets. He was well known for writing about nature, ordinary people and life using very often poetic techniques such as imagery and humor. In his poems, Frost achieved an internal dynamic “by playing the rhythms of ordinary speech against formal patterns of line and containing them within traditional forms” (Baym 1086).

Having introduced Robert Foster and his style of writing it is reasonable to briefly refer to the historical context of modernism. Modernist literature began in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many scholars argue that modernism is characterized by a will to break with established forms “in poetry, they mixed slang with elevated language, experimented with free verse, and often studded their works with difficult allusions and disconnected images” (“Modernist Experiment: Overview”). One of the literary traits where character, protagonist, or narrator questions the “previously sustaining structures of human life, whether social, political, religious, or artistic” (1078) and may no offer concrete alternatives could be easily could be easily acknowledge in the poem. At the very beginning of the piece, the speaker questions previously established habits, structures of human life. In addition, he goes as far as to question neighbor’s personal point of view which reminds the reader of another literary trait of Modernism, mainly that the stability of the plot, setting, external world, and/ or point of view is brought into question (1079). During the time of the World War I, many thinkers such as Sigmund Freud questioned the rationality of mankind. Modernism continued to gain popularity during the 1920s with works of artists such as Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot and Ernest Hemingway. Many of those writers began exposing the “irrationality at the roots of a supposedly rational world” (..)

Despite the fact that Robert Frost wrote the poem more than hundred years ago it is still relevant in current times because there are individuals around us who could be described as very “old fashioned” and those who seems to be exceptionally modernist. The “old fashioned” people do not feel a need to experience any type of changes and frequently they have a hard time accepting others opinion if it differs from their own. The other group of individuals that we are also surrounded by are those who believe in progress. In this group we might find people who do not see a point in cherishing the past/tradition, they might think they know what is the best. The mentioned dilemma: tradition vs modernity could been seen for instance between young and elderly people, who share different points of views on certain topics. The way the author wrote his piece allows the reader to understand it in one’s unique way, there is no “right” or “wrong” analysis of it, which means that poem can be applied in various spheres of life, including politics or every day life that is why I believe it is important to analyze it in social context.

In terms of form, Frost’s “Mending Wall” consists of lines of equal lengths, there are no stanza breaks. The meter of the poem is blank verse and there is a repetition of the phrase, “Good fences make good neighbors” (“Literary Devices”). In addition, to some “Mending Wall” gives a feeling of a conversation between the narrator and his neighbor. In the first eleven lines of the work, one might notice imagery which is an author’s use of figurative language to add depth to his poem and appeal to reader’s physical senses for instance “He is all pine and I am apple orchard” (Frost). Moreover, the poem contains many symbols, and author uses a metaphor to compare the stone blocks to loaves and balls. In addition, as suggested by George Monteiro in his book Robert Frost and the New England Renaissance “the answers presented in “Mending Wall” are somewhat less than clear-cut. The reason is at least partly that Frost has purposely and purposefully left out of his poem some important information” (Monteiro 128). In this manner, Frost’s style of writing is not only about what is in the poem but also what is missing that makes it unique and intriguing.

In this part of the essay, I would like to define tradition and progress and analyze significant passages in the poem that will contribute to understanding the importance of balance between tradition and progress as highlighted in Frost’s poem. According to Cambridge Dictionary tradition is “a belief, principle, or way of acting that people in a particular society or group have continued to follow for a long time, or all of these belief, etc. in a particular society or group” (Cambridge Dictionary). The word “tradition” comes from the Latin word tradere which means to transmit, to hand over (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). In “Mending Wall” the reader is confronted with the “old-fashioned” neighbor who will not go behind his father’s saying, and keeps repeating “Good fences make good neighbors,” there is no doubt that having a wall is a tradition passed down to him by his father. Although the neighbor does not want to explain the speaker why the presence of wall is so meaningful to him, it does not necessarily mean that his point of view is invalid nor that he blindly follows the tradition, maybe he has his own reasons that stand behind the importance of having a wall. From the reading of the poem, the wall turns out to be something that unites both neighbors. Having this in mind, one might wonder, are traditions good or bad? It is safe to say, that it all depends on the circumstances. On one hand, just because something is repeated does not mean it is not of importance, but on the other hand just because something has been done for instance by parents does not necessary mean that it needs to be done by the next generations. To decide weather tradition is bad or good, one must have a broader view of the specific situation.

Having analyzed briefly the meaning of tradition, it is useful to look at the definition of progress. As stated in the Cambridge Dictionary progress is a “movement to an improved or more developed state, or to a forward position” (Cambridge Dictionary). In Frost’s poem, the speaker seems to believe in common sense, logic and progress, throughout the story, he questions the existence of the wall. He enumerates reasons why the presence of the wall is meaningless to him and his neighbor. The speaker claims that “he is all pine and I am apple orchard,” hence he does not see any valid reasons for the existence of the wall. It seems logic to destroy it if it does not fulfill any role, after all neither of the trees will cross their respective boundaries. In addition, he says “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know/ What I was walling in or walling out” (Frost, lines 33-24). It is necessary for him to ask questions about something that he does not understand, that is why he goes on saying “why do they make good neighbors?” (31). As one might notice, the speaker tries to understand the point of view presented by his neighbor. This passage reminds me of the idea of the progress itself, in order to improve (progress), one must ask questions. Once again it is worth considering whether the progress is always a good idea? Similarly, as in the case of tradition, I believe it all depends on the circumstances under which the progress takes place. On one hand if the author would have follow his intuition and destroy the wall, he might lose the only chance to spend time with his neighbor. On the other hand, his curiosity about the existence of the wall is the thing that makes him meet the neighbor “and on a day we meet to walk the line” (13). In this manner neither tradition nor progress is always a right choice, it is about the balance between both of them, one cannot exist without the other.

Another significance passage to my understanding of the poem could be find in the line 42, mainly “He moves in darkness as it seems to me” (42), those are the words spoken by the progressive neighbor. In reality, people frequently do not understand someone’s point of view, to them that person might “move in a dark”. Just like progress symbolizes moving forward, the tradition goes back to the past, some might believe that if one is attached to the tradition, he or she moves in the dark, but the dark place to one person could mean opposite to the other. In addition, the words “to me,” could stand for the fact that the speaker is aware that it is just his opinion, and for others behavior of his neighbor might seem rational.

Lastly, in my essay I would like to focus on the symbol of the wall which also serves as irony because its role is both, uniting but also separating. In the context of my paper, the wall symbolizes not only a physical boundary between the two properties but above all something in between tradition and progress, a middle ground, which allows the “old-fashioned” neighbor to go along with a “progressive” individual. It comes as no surprise that frequently walls are designed to protect and secure, hence walls serves as a separation. In the poem by Robert Frost the wall plays a significant role in separating but also uniting neighbors together (Hinrichsen and Dempsey). In other words, although the wall separates two individuals, the reparation of the wall gives them a reason to meet together, as speaker argues “and on a day we meet to walk the line” (Frost), since they do it regularly it could be said that fixing the wall became a tradition that they both cultivate.

To sum up, Robert Frost has been known as one of the key figure of modernist poetry in the United States. In his poem “Mending Wall” Frost portraits the life of two neighbors whose properties are divided by the wall. The neighbors differ from each other, the traditional one believes in the importance of the wall, the progressive speaker questions the need for any barriers. Ultimately, the wall between properties becomes an uniting aspect as both of the neighbors work on it together. I believe that “Mending Wall” emphasizes the importance of having a balance in life between holding on blindly to tradition and focusing only on the progress. None of those paths are successful on their own, what really matters is to look beyond obvious but to not forget the traditions which very often provide context for thoughtful reflections that leads us to progress.

WORKS CITED

1. Frost, Robert. “Mending Wall.” The Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Hold, Rinehart and Winston Inc., 1969. 33-34.
2. Baym, Nina, et al, editors. Norton Anthology of American Literature. Introduction. 6th ed., vol. D, Norton 2002, pp.1071-86.
3. Cook, Reginald, L. The Dimensions of Robert Frost. New York, Rinehart & Company, Inc, 1959.
4. Cox, James, M. editor. Robert Frost A Collection of Critical Essays. New Jersey, Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1962.
5. Hinrichsen, Lisa, and Sean Dempsey. “The Good Neighbor: Robert Frost and the Ethics of Community.” The Robert Frost Review, no. 21, 2011, pp. 8–23. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43897695.
6. “Tradition.” Cambridge Dictionary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/. Accessed 25 th of November, 2019.
7. “Progress.” Cambridge Dictionary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/. Accessed 25 th of November, 2019.

Robert Frosts poems are quite simple, dealing with everyday situations and emotions, yet taking them to another level of exploration. He looks at aspects of nature and then converts them into symbols to use in his poems, thus making them completely relevant to our everyday lives and easy to make sense of. In After Apple-Picking, there is another symbol derived from nature. The Road Not Taken writes, two roads diverging in a yellow wood and shows how Frost considers his choices in life, choices that people face every day. Frost is a philosophical observer who perceives existential aspects in common occurrences (all his poems on the course). These include the nature of making decisions in ‘The Road Not Taken’, the nature of barriers in ‘Mending Wall’ and fragility of human life in ‘Out, Out-’. Other prevalent themes include loneliness seen in ‘Acquainted with the Night’ and ‘The Tuft of Flowers’ and living in the countryside as seen in ‘After Apple-Picking’, ‘The Tuft of Flowers’, ‘Mending Wall’ and ’Out, Out-’.

‘The Tuft of Flowers’ introduces the themes that dominate much of Frost’s poetry. These themes, developed as the narrative unfolds, include the passage of time, loneliness, communication, and the power of the imagination. The use of a first-person narrator makes the poem a more immediate and realistic experience as the reader is drawn into the poet’s world and explores the themes ‘as with his aid’. The poem opens with the narrator setting out to turn the cut grass so that it will dry in the sun. In a scene like the Romantic era, the speaker is portrayed as a figure of isolation in the landscape. He searches in vain for the mower, ‘But he had gone his way, the grass all mown’. The narrator sadly concludes that loneliness is intrinsic to the human condition, whether people ‘work together or apart’. The arrival of the butterfly, which like the speaker is searching for something it cannot find, flutters in confusion around the withered flowers on the ground and then returns to the poet, who prepares to continue with his work. The butterfly diverts the speaker’s attention to the tuft of flowers, beside the stream. Unlike the other flowers, these have been spared by the mower because he loved them and are described as a ‘leaping tongue of bloom’. The flowers ‘speak’ to him, bringing him a ‘message from the dawn’. They enable him to hear the wakening birds and the whispering scythe. The mower is compared to the Grim Reaper as he cuts the grass and possesses the power to kill the flowers or to spare them ‘from sheer morning gladness’.. He comes and goes silently and is never seen by mortal eyes. His power over life and death is contrasted with the helplessness of the butterfly ‘on tremulous wing’. The flowers connect the mower and the narrator, who sees in them a ‘message from the dawn’. Through the power of the imagination he is transported back through time to the early morning, when the birds sang as the scythe cut through the tall grasses. The speaker recognises ‘a spirit kindred to my own’ in the mower and feels as if he can reach out across time and space to the absent mower and friend. This connection forces the speaker to revise his earlier opinion that humans are destined to be lonely and alone as he can confidently declare: ‘Men work together … Whether they work together or apart.’ A form of communication exists between the mower and the speaker as the poem ends with the consoling thought that ‘Men work together … Whether they work together or apart’.

The ‘Mending Wall’ considers the beliefs that separate men. There are two characters in the poem, the narrator and his neighbour, who see the wall in very different ways. They are brought together to repair the damaged boundary in the spring and are unified by their divisions. The poem opens on a mysterious note: some unidentified force exists that dislikes walls. The soft ‘s’ sounds capture the sensation of the silently swelling ground that dislodges the stones and he broad vowels mimic the shape of the rounded boulders that roll off the wall, gaps behind, of which he means, ‘No one has seen them made or heard them made’. The annual wall-repairing ritual occurs in the spring. It seems as if a magic formula is required to keep the stones in place. At first it is like a game and a more serious note is introduced when the need for the wall is questioned as borders wall things in as well as block things out. They cause offence, which is a pun on the word ‘fence’. The narrator wants the neighbour to reject the division and describes the man as ‘an old-stone savage armed’. Not only is he working with stones, but his attitudes are primitive, and his beliefs have not evolved. He is armed not simply with stones but with dangerous, inflexible attitudes as ‘He moves in darkness’. The neighbour refuses to change sides and sticks stubbornly to ‘his father’s saying’. The poem is about boundaries as these can be physical, political and psychological. The physical boundary in the poem is the stone wall as the men work on it to divide their opinions. The psychological differences between the two men are perhaps the most prominent as the narrator seems more open to change, to challenge accepted practices, more humorous and more imaginative than his conservative neighbour. The narrator realises that sometimes ‘we do not need the wall’, but this concept meets with firm resistance: ‘He will not go behind his father’s saying’. His neighbour is a traditionalist and stands behind received wisdom with the same tenacity as he stands behind the stone wall.

‘After Apple-Picking’ is a complex poem. At a surface level it can be read as a nature poem and dwells on the stillness of the weary harvester, with its lifeless mood and lush imagery. At a deeper level it can be read as a study of the creative process. The orchard is described at the outset. The harvest is over, the air, with the scent of mature apples, has a sensual effect on the apple-picker. The long vowel sounds, irregular rhyming scheme, slow tempo and rhythm suggest that the repetitive work has lulled him into a semi-conscious state. The speaker sinks into a drowsy numbness. This suspension of consciousness releases his imagination. Sight and insight are important issues. In the opening scene the speaker looks upwards towards Heaven and downwards to the barrel. This reflects the main movement in the poem: the ascent towards the visionary heights and the gradual descent to normality. The focus slips and becomes blurred when the speaker drowses off. He enters a semi-conscious state, neither. awake nor asleep. Ironically, this releases his imagination and frees it from its sense-bound limitations, and he can now see in a completely new way and have a new perspective. The familiar becomes strange, transformed in a visionary world by his imagination. In this state his perspective changes and his perceptions intensify. The focus is sharpened and magnified. Even the smallest details on the apple are visible: ‘And every fleck of russet showing clear’. awake nor asleep. Paradoxically, this releases his imagination and frees it from its sense-bound limitations. He now sees in a new way. The familiar becomes strange, transformed in a visionary world by his imagination. In this state his perspective changes and his perceptions intensify. The focus is sharpened and magnified. Even the smallest details on the apple are visible: ‘And every fleck of russet showing clear’. The poem describes the drift from consciousness to unconsciousness. The calm, peaceful mood in the opening lines is replaced by a sense of physical and mental exhaustion as the speaker becomes increasingly vague (‘there may be’, ‘upon some bough’, ‘two or three’). The breakdown of the rhyming scheme and the repetition of sleep and apple reflect his weariness. It It seems he is too tired to vary his vocabulary and maintain the discipline of a strict rhyming pattern. The lethargic mood is reinforced through the use. of long vowels and the slow, irregular rhythm. He enters a dreamlike state, yet it is not without a feeling of unease. He is overtired and cannot escape the sensations of the day’s work. There are moments of tension when he remembers the care required to prevent the fruit from falling: ‘For all That struck the earth, No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, Went surely to the cider-apple heap as of no worth’.

‘The Road not Taken’ suggests considerable thematic issues through a simple narrative. The speaker stands in an autumnal wood at a point where two roads run off in different directions. Reluctantly he is forced to make a choice about which one he will take. Both roads seem ‘about the same’, so the focus is on the decision made and its consequences. The traveller cannot see where the first path will lead, as it bends in the undergrowth, so he chooses the other. The grounds for his choice are unclear. While he states that this road had ‘the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear’, he goes on to admit that they were ‘really about the same’, as, maybe, both have the same destination and fate will decide what happens to the speaker, influencing him to trust his instinct in which path is more correct for him, ‘and both that morning equally lay’ covered in leaves. He keeps the first ‘for another day’, knowing there is a finality inherent in his choice, and doubts he will ever return. He conveys the sense of momentous, life-changing decisions in the final stanza when he predicts that in the future the speaker will look back on this moment ‘with a sigh’, which could be one of regret or content. He knows he will regret losing the opportunity to investigate the other option. The choice he has made has serious consequences for him. Frost uses imagery in an almost symbolic way to carry the meaning in the poem. The two roads in the yellow wood represent two different journeys through life. The narrator describes himself as a traveller who must choose which path to follow. One road bends in the undergrowth, making it impossible to see where it will lead, just as in life no one can foretell with certainty the outcome of a decision or what one’s future will be like. Frost describes the woods as ‘yellow’ and the roads as covered ‘In leaves no step had trodden black’. This suggests an autumn scene. Autumn is sometimes used in poetry to suggest maturity. The decision is being made at a time when the speaker is sufficiently experienced and wise to realise the implications of his choice; he knows ‘how way leads on to way’. When he chooses, there is no turning back. He finally decides to take the road ‘less travelled by’ and this changes his life completely. He chooses the road with his moral compass as life is full of risks and took the road he wanted even if the decision was hard.

The poem ‘Out, out-’ deals with the briefness of human existence. The boy is depicted as a tragic hero, destined by forces beyond his control to meet an untimely and pointless death. The title may also refer to the blood flowing from the mutilated hand and the departure of life from the body. The poem opens suddenly with the snarling machine cutting wood into sweet-smelling logs. The ‘stove-length’ logs will be burned for the life-supporting purposes of cooking and heating. However, the saw has the power to destroy as well as create. It reduces the wood to dust. The reader is reminded of the description of the body’s decay after death: ‘earth to earth, ashes to ashes, and dust to dust’. This image anticipates the fatal accident that will occur later in the poem. The mechanical noises, evocative of predatory animals and rattlesnakes, are suggestive of danger and death. The machine, a ‘buzz saw’, sounds like swarms of angry, stinging and biting insects. These threatening images are contrasted immediately with the tranquil beauty of the natural world, as represented by the Vermont mountains. The effect is to heighten the menace of the saw. Significantly, the whole scene is enacted against the background of the setting sun. The fading light foreshadows the darkness that is shortly to fall upon the boy. As the sun sets, the brief candle of his existence will also be extinguished. His sister, homely in her apron, announces that supper is ready. Like the stove-logs, supper is life-sustaining. With cruel irony, the saw takes its cue, leaps to devour the boy’s hand and bites into the flesh. The biblical overtones here of the Last Supper, flesh, and blood, point towards the boy as an innocent victim, needlessly sacrificed, as the bystanders look on. The opening lines that set the scene are long, flowing, and descriptive. The lines shorten when the accident occurs; this quickens the pace of the poem and heightens the tension. At the end, the pace slows down in order to echo with three little words the last three heartbeats as the boy’s life ebbs away: ‘Little – less – nothing! – and that ended it.’ The full stop refuses to admit any continuation of life or hope. The brisk, matter-of-fact attitude is summed up in the brief line ‘No more to build on there’. The return to normality is indicated in the full-length closing line.

‘Acquainted with the Night’ is one of Frost’s darkest poems. The mood is predominantly sombre, the tone unmistakably solemn. It expresses an overwhelming sense of anxiety, isolation, and despair. While the speaker is presented as a solitary figure walking at night through the city, the poem can be read as a psychological journey, where the townscape is coloured by the mental state of the speaker himself. The scenes portrayed are mental projections, reflecting the mood of the narrator. The world is covered in darkness and unrelieved gloom. The incessant rain is indicative of his depression as he travels through the blackness beyond hope and comfort, symbolised by the reassuring city lights. In this ‘saddest’ of places he shuns human contact, refusing communication with any who might enquire. Jealously guarding his privacy, ‘unwilling to explain’, he retreats into his own silent world. The silence is punctured by a distant impersonal cry. The cry is ‘interrupted’, hinting at possible violence, repression, and suffering. The anonymity and impersonal nature of the incident deepens the fearful mood of the speaker. Yet he is not in immediate danger: the cry comes from far away, another street. These events occur beneath the ‘luminary clock’ – the moon, or perhaps a real clock – which marks the passage of time. This clock fails to offer guidance or comfort to those who look upon its face: it proclaims merely that ‘the time was neither wrong nor right’. In this short poem Frost explores his recurrent themes. He refers to darkness, isolation, the passage of time, sorrow, indifference, and an absence of communication between people. It is important to note, however, that the poem is set in the past. He writes that though he has ‘walked’, ‘outwalked’, ‘looked’, ‘passed by’, ‘dropped my eyes’, ‘stood still and stopped the sound of feet’, he has not escaped the night; instead, he has undergone his ordeal alone and has coped with it and survived: ‘I have been one acquainted with the night.’ The poem is carefully crafted with images of darkness and rain overshadowing the first stanza, creating the bleak atmosphere that is sustained throughout. The images of light serve only to intensify the gloom. The city lights are distant, while the ‘luminary clock’ stands at an ‘unearthly height … against the sky’. The second stanza is preoccupied with seeing and not seeing: ‘looked’, ‘watchman’, ‘dropped my eyes’. The sounds accentuate the silences of the third stanza, reinforcing his isolation. The clock in the fourth stanza emphasises the impersonal nature of the world. The repetition of the opening line in the rhyming couplet is a reminder of the speaker’s harrowing experience.

For Robert Frost it seemed that the deed of writing and interpreting his poetry never ended. His technique included simple dialect and description, his imagery was physical yet hypothetical, and his method showed his opposing views of the universe. Frost creates an atmosphere of depth, pulling the reader into the story by his use of descriptive adjectives and other descriptions of desolation, silence, and emptiness. Frost can be regarded as a nature poet, but the focus of the poems is usually deeply philosophical. Frost does not really express any opinions in his poetry. Instead, he highlights certain issues to stimulate the reader to make up his or her mind. This is a characteristic of exceptional poetry and helps explain why Frost is so revered.

Introduction to Frost’s Thematic Exploration

The twentieth century was to witness an explosion of poetry in America. The traditionalist search for a past and precedent, as described in the Phillis Wheatley essay example, was to be maintained. The reader is confronted with work that negotiates between the solidity and the subversion of the moral self and poetic structure, the pursuit of form, discipline, and the impulse towards fragmentation, doubt`. (Gray 373-374)

This is the way in which Richard Gray describes the 20th century cultural atmosphere characterized by doubt, by innovation but also a return to past and traditions, a return to the simplicity of the rural life. And so does Robert Frost in his poems.

Robert Lee Frost, 20th century American poet and a four time Pulitzer Prize winner, was born in San Francisco in March of 1874. Although born on the West Coast, he is usually associated with New England in his poetry. To have a career as a modern poet he felt obliged to go abroad, taking the voice of a simple England farmer and using simple comprehensible words and scenes to depict high moral issues that a 20th century man confronted with.

Themes like isolation, final limitations of a man and human relationships marked Frost`s poetry and are heavy explored in poems like Mending Wall, The Road Not taken and The Gift Outright. The isolation of the individual is widely described in Mending Wall in which Frost’s illustrates man’s necessity for barriers to isolate themselves from their `neighbors`. In The Road Not Taken the author present the final limitations of man, as a simple human being with one chance, with one life only.

The purpose of my essay is to analyze Frost`s poems Mending Wall, The Road Not taken, and The Gift Outright to highlight the contrast between communication and self isolation and between human relationships and boundaries/barriers of the individual and twentieth society seen through Robert Frost`s eyes.

Mending Wall: A Study of Isolation and Boundaries

Mending Wall is the first poem in Frost’s second book of poetry, “North of Boston,” which was published upon his return from England in 1915. While living in England with his family, Frost missed the farm in New Hampshire where he had lived with his wife from 1900 to 1909. He associated his time in New Hampshire with a peaceful, rural sensibility that we can find in his poems.

The poem can be seen as an autobiographical poem: it is said that Frost had a neighbor in New Hampshire, named Napoleon Guay, with whom he often walked along their lands and repaired the wall that separated them. We can reach at the conclusion that Frost uses a simple, rural context, the annual mending of the wall to highlight a more general theme, the metaphor of the wall as the totality of self-limitations and boundaries that a living human can’t live without.

Mending Wall describes two neighboring farmers who live in isolation from one another. Frost uses the word ‘gaps’ to describe the holes in the wall. This word could also stand for the ‘gaps’ that the neighbors are placing between each other. ‘No one has seen them made or heard them made'(l. 10) but somehow the gaps naturally exist and are always found when the two get together.

The spirited discussion of the poem bears witness to its moving evocation not only of the two characters, but also of the paradoxically linked themes that their conflict dramatizes: neighborliness and isolation, open-mindedness and prejudice, dependence and independence. (Kemp 14)

Some others sub themes that are found in Mending Wall are the nature of a society, human relationships and physical and emotional barriers. Frost shows the way in which people interact, how they function as body. For Frost, the world is often one of isolation.

`Its title is revealingly ambiguous. Mending can be seen either as a verb or an adjective. The verb refers to the activity that the speaker and his neighbor perform in repairing the wall between their two farms. As an adjective the word refers to the wall and serves a more subtle function: as a mending wall, it keeps the relationship between the two neighbors in good condition`, justifying the author`s affirmation in his essay: “Education by Poetry” (1931), Robert Frost says: `Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another`. Starting from here we can always presume that Mending Wall may lead us to more than one path: one familiar, one more subtle. (http://www.enotes.com/topics/mending-wall/in-depth#in-depth-the-poem)

In the poem there are two distinct characters having different ideas about what good neighbor really means. While attacking his neighbor`s lack of open-minded amiability, the speaker is the one who exhibits antisocial tendencies. He is quick to think the worst, presuming that the farmer`s concern with the wall is motivated by base selfishness, despite the latter`s expressed interest in being . (Kemp 21) Despite his skeptical attitude, the speaker is even more tied to the annual tradition of wall-mending than his neighbor. His skepticism may be an attempt to justify his behavior to himself. Presenting himself as a modern man, far beyond old-fashioned traditions, the speaker is really no different from his neighbor: he also agrees with the concept of property and division, of ownership and individuality.

But truly, the speaker has mended the walls of his personality, and rather than combating an opponent, attempting moral or philosophical sallies, and worrying about victory or defeat, he has again taken an observer`s approach to his neighbor. (Kemp 24) Although the speaker considers himself a modern man, above his simple neighbor, he does not try to help him with understanding the real significance of the wall. He does not fight him also, even though he does not agree with him. He keeps everything for him, he internalizes and so he only manages to `mend` the holes of his personality rather than fixing his problems and evolving.

The location of the neighbor is described as ‘beyond the hill’ and even when he tries to get closer he remains far away, another phrase suggesting isolation. The neighbor seems to ‘move in darkness /not of woods only and the shade of trees (l.41 – 42). Darkness represents his inability to communicate and relate with others.

He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors` (l.45), highlighting the idea that the wall is crucial to maintaining their relationship. The poem has a circular form, it begins and it ends with the same line.

The first line of the poem is notable because it functions as a counterpoint to the farmer`s apothegm, which appears once in the middle of the poem< l. 27> and then again in the final line. His reiteration is an appropriate ending of the poem because it completes a cyclical pattern to which the speaker has no rejoinder and from which he cannot escape. (Kemp 18)

The presence of the wall between the properties creates a solid relationship between the two neighbors. The division maintains their individuality and personal identity as farmers.. The act of mending the wall happens every year and represents the perfect opportunity for the two neighbors, members of a stray, rural community to interact and communicate with each other, an event that might not occur in an isolated environment. This action allows the two men to develop their relationship.

The poem highlights both the dual and the complementary nature of human society. The rights of the individual are confirmed upon other individuals` rights; the act of the mending of the wall represents a good excuse for the speaker to interact with his neighbor.

The Road Not Taken: Choices and Their Consequences

Robert Frost’s The Road Not Taken describes a traveler in the woods when he arrives at a fork in the road and hesitates while deciding which path to take. This decision seems to be irreversibly, I doubted if I should ever come back (3rd stanza, l.5). He realizes that the two paths are essentially the same, resulting in an ironic “sigh” at the end.

The Road Not Taken is an allegory about life choices and their consequences. It describes the speaker contemplating upon past decisions. The symbolism of the poem shows an individual that chooses a path, a direction of his life that has irreparable consequences. Although it may seem an obvious poem, The Road Not Taken is opened to multiple interpretations. The Road Not Taken is an ambiguous poem that allows the reader to think about choices in life, whether to go on the crowded path or go it alone, on a `less traveled path (4th stanza, l.4). If life is a journey, this poem highlights those times in life when a decision has to be made.

According to Robert Frost himself, the poem ‘is tricky, quite tricky’. In a letter, Frost claimed, “My poems… are all set to trip the reader head foremost into the boundless.` The poem does not trip readers simply to tease them— it aims to launch them into the boundless, to launch them past spurious distinctions and into a vision of unbounded simultaneity.

Frost played with the differences between the human capacity to connect with one another and to experience feelings of profound isolation. For the author solitary individuals wander through a natural setting and encounter another individual, an object, or an animal, a forked path. Moments of revelation are discovered in these times in which the speaker realizes her or his connection to others or the ways that she or he feels isolated from the community. Themes like the figure of the wanderer and the changing social landscape of New England in the twentieth century appear in Frost`s poems. The poet, like a solitary traveler, was separated from the community, which allowed him to view social interactions, as well as the natural world, with a sense of wonder, fear, and admiration. (https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/themes/)

In the early twentieth century, the development of transportation and industry created the “tramp,” the person who lived a simple lifestyle on the outskirts of the community, looking for work in a rapidly developing industrial society, highlighting the idea of isolation from society and boundaries and creating the historical and regional background of Frost`s poetry.(https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/themes/)

In the Road not Taken, Frost analyzes life`s different possibilities and observes human limitations regarding the decision between the two paths. The speaker can only pick one road, at the end selecting the one not taken because the individual has only one life, this being the final limitation of a human being. That person influences his future, becoming responsible for his choices and, at the same time he can never return to the past and change it. Life may turn out successful or not but her is always a regret when one wonders how would have been if he had taken another path, living other experiences.

The Gift Outright: Formation of National Identity

The last poem, The Gift Outright received special attention when Frost recited it at the inauguration of President John F. Kennedy on January 20, 1961.

It shows the idea of crossing lines and overstepping boundaries as the best way to create the identity of a nation and gain culture. Americans ‘outright’ gave their abilities to a country that was expanding its border towards the west: `[The poem] alluded to American history, especially in relation to England, and it explores the American Dream in terms of the promise of ownership of the land. [..] The earliest promises of America were based on the idea of fresh opportunity – to escape from the oppression of history to a virgin land where one could make oneself anew. had come to mean prosperity and possession of the land`. (Bloom 59)

The poem opens by describing the American the possessed the land–before they also belonged to the land–partly because the people were controlled by their English masters. Ownership of the land was denied to them by England and because they did not give themselves to the land in the spiritual and physical union how love demands. These limitations were overcame when Americans realized they had to give themselves in an act of passionate surrender, for to give oneself ‘outright’ means to do so immediately and totally, as lovers do. (Mordecai, http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/gift.html/)

` (l.13th line) suggests the condition of rootlessness and culturelessness of newcomers adrift on a continent, derivated from and secondary to a land they were still possessed by. They were capable neither of witnessing nor adjusting to the new place, to the new condition since those had not yet, and perhaps never did, came together for them (Bloom 64). The colonists in America initially struggled to connect with the land because of their ties to England. English colonists were not Americans when they first lived on the land. The colonists were still under the barriers and limitations of the English law, art, culture, tradition, and beliefs. Over time, they managed to make a commitment to the land and establish their identities as Americans because of their efforts to build a culture that was not based on European traditions.

Frost ignores the original “owners” of the land: the Native Americans and the conflict between them and the colonists, focusing on the confrontation between the Old World of European tradition and the New World of American freedom and dreams. This fact may highlight the limitations of Frost`s perception towards society and the period that he lived in.

Conclusion: Overcoming Boundaries and Embracing Change

To conclude with, in Robert Frost`s poems the question of boundaries, limitations, relationships and isolation can be approached in many ways. In one context the barriers are accepted just the way they, in other contexts those limitations seem to represent the motivation that encourage the people to overpass them to gain freedom and to create their own identity.

Frost’s formulations is frequently used to address the universal difficulty of moving beyond the borders of our daily lives, whether imposed at the edges of the nation-state, inscribed in our social relations, or inferred within the formal dimensions of a poem but also the need to overcome our limits to evolve and experience the consequences of our choices. Frost’s deep ambivalence about fences and borders is a useful step in any political and aesthetic movement forward.

Works Cited

1. Bloom, Harold. The American Dream. The Gift Outright, Bloom`s Literary Criticism, 2009, Web 13 January 2019
2. Cox, James M. `Robert Frost. A collection of critical essays. Marion Montgomery, Robert Frost and His use of Barriers, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1962, Web 12 January 2019
3. Cox, James M. `Robert Frost. A collection of critical essays. Winters, Yvor. Robert Frost: Or, the Spiritual Drifter as Poet, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1962, Web 12 January 2019
4. Gray, Richard. `A History of American Literature`, Weiley-Blackwell, A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication, Cambridge University Press, 2012, Web 12 January 2019
5. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. `Complete Poems of Robert Frost`, Mending Wall; The Road Not Taken; The Gift Outright, 1994, pp 47-48; p. 131; p. 467, Web 12 January 2019
6. Jason. Philip K ‘Mending Wall – The Poem’ Critical Guide to Poetry for Students Ed. eNotes.com, Inc. 2002 eNotes.com 12 Jan, 2019 http://www.enotes.com/topics/mending-wall/in-depth#in-depth-the-poem
7. Kalaidjian, Walter. ` The Cambridge Companion To American Modernism`, Cambridge University Press, 2005, Web 12 January 2019
8. Kemp, John C. `Robert and New England` The poet as a regionalist, Princeton University Press, Cambridge University Press, 2005 Web 12 January 2019
9. Mordecai Marcus. The Poems of Robert Frost: an explication. Copyright © 1991 http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/frost/gift.html/, Web 13 January 2019
10. Philip L. Gerber.Philip L., Robert Frost, Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. January 10, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-Frost , Web January 13, 2019
11. SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on Frost’s Early Poems.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2002. Web. 12 Jan. 2019. https://www.sparknotes.com/poetry/frost/themes/
12. Vincent, Caitlin. Jordan Reid Berkow ed. ‘Robert Frost: Poems “The Gift Outright” (1941) Summary and Analysis’. GradeSaver, 12 May 2009 Web. 12 January 2018

Robert Lee Frost was born on 26th March 1874 in San Francisco, California. The American poet was praised for his depictions of rural life, and his realistic verse portraying ordinary people in everyday situations (Gerber, 2019). He was an ordinary man who loves nature and uses simple words in his work. One among his famous poems was ‘Mending the wall’. It opens Frost’s second collection of poetry, North of Boston, published in 1914 (Encyclopedia.com). In this poem, he has explored the reason why people create boundaries around them. “Personal boundaries are the limits we set for ourselves as individuals in relationships” (Hecker. n.d). This essay focuses on the encounter between the speaker and the neighbor regarding the boundaries set in human life.

On the one hand the rigid boundaries can lead to chronic loneliness. In this poem the author says that setting limits in life is insignificant and he compared it to the physical barrier made between the neighbors. He is a person who wants to have a close relationship with others. In his point of view the wall is unnecessary as he is not going to exploit his neighbor. He contradicts with the idea of his neighbor of mending the wall as his apple trees and the neigbor’s pine trees neither will get confused, nor will eat the fruits of each other. The speaker felt that his neighbor is an uncivilized man who takes over the path of his father. He considered him as a man of old age with his stone weapons, who is still in darkness. In the authors view the wall does not maintain a good relationship but only keeps the neighbor away from him. In a like manner the boundaries keep people away from one. Even those people who shares same values, believes and experiences set limits in their life to avoid being exploited by other. This also helps them to avoid getting too close with others who may not have best interest at heart for them (Collingwood, 2018).

On the other hand the neighbor expresses the view that good fences make good neighbours (Frost, 1914). He believed that setting clear boundaries between neighbors ensures a healthy relationship between them, and assures that the relationships are mutually respected. Thus he insisted on building a physical barrier between them. This wall is created in harmony between the neighbors to protect and respect each other’s privacy. And if one feels that the boundaries are loose; leads to emotions then it is the time to reset the limits. The resetting of boundaries is considered as the time for mending wall in the poem. This is a tradition followed from his father since many years. The neighbour does not want to clarify the reason for his attitude, and says that he took up his father’s attitude. Moreover boundaries are a measure of self-esteem; an indicator showing that one deserved to be treated well. They set the limits for acceptable behaviour from those around him/her, determining whether they feel able to put one down, or take advantage of one’s good nature (Collingwood, 2018). For example, a family relationship cannot be healthy until both partners communicate their boundaries clearly and the other person respects them. And it allows both partners to feel comfortable and develop positive self-esteem. At the same time having healthy boundaries does not mean that rigidly saying no to everything. Nor does it mean cocooning oneself from others.

In addition boundaries help not to compromise one’s value for other people. If a person compromise his/her values it can lead to frustration and finally ruins the relationship. For instance, if an employee has an appointment with the employer who values time and the employee is late for half an hour. This can ruin the relationship among them as there is a clear boundary of how much the employer is willing to tolerate lateness. To set boundaries one should know his/her values, believes morals and should be true to one. If not it may set a loose or rigid boundaries. Besides keeping other people from coming into one’s space it also keep one from going into the space of others and abusing them. And these imaginary lines move up and down based on our circumstances (Eddins, 2018).

As noted above boundaries are crucial as they protect people from being enmeshed. It also helps one to know what the extents and limits with others. But having too rigid boundaries can have an undesired effect. It can be a double edged sword- craving connection while fearing closeness. In contradiction a loose boundary may leads to difficulty in identifying one’s own emotions and needs. The disconnection from one to his/her own needs and emotions may leads to compulsive behaviour such as eating disorders (Eddins, 2018). After analysing the pros and cons; in my opinion setting healthy boundaries is very essential in establishing a nourishing relationship. And for this one need to know the true self and his/her own circumstances.

References

1. Collingwood. J. (2018). The importance of personal boundaries. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/lib/the-importance-of-personal-boundaries/
2. Encyclopedia.com. (2009). Mending Wall. Retrieved from https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/mending-wall
3. Eddins.R. (2018). Keeping good boundaries & getting your needs met. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/lib/keeping-good-boundaries-getting-your-needs-met/

As a narrative poem, Robert Frost´s ¨Mending Wall¨ serves to explore the nature of human relationships, territorial boundaries, individualistic thoughts, and identity. Frost presents the reader with a situation of two men coming together with the goal of restoring a simple stone wall that divides their properties. What comes out from the poem is not simply an engaging story or even an overview of the characters and their experiences, but a search for understanding different approaches to life and challenging all definitions.

The enclosing qualities of the stone wall along with the perceived understatement are accomplished through a limited yet very clearly defined setting. The outline of the main differences between the two fields, “He is all pine, and I am apple orchard,” is a small yet unique aspect to the overall poem and setting. In this idea of boundaries, the setting is merely a backdrop to the underlying meaning of actions demonstrated in the poem. Rather, it is a metaphor for separateness as the main purpose is to clearly distinguish between the two unique worlds.

The speaker yearns for a closer relationship with the other man and makes this evident when he adds subtle humor to his comments which are established on the grounds of practical observation. Farmers tend to use fences in order to keep their livestock separated. Therefore, the speaker considers the fence useless as pine trees and apple trees won’t be mixed up since from view the difference is quite evident, nor will either man take the apple or seeds of the other. To this, the neighbor fires back with a comment in the form of a proverb: “Good fences make good neighbors.” The distinctive division of the properties and worlds portrayed in the poem is again further strengthened by the difference in communication between the men. One simply jokes about the presence of the wall. While, the other counters with a bit of wisdom that he references back to, almost for rhetorical emphasis, at the final line of the poem. The conversation the speaker and the neighbor have is subtle, however, the message that the poet is trying to reach is that not only is there a separation in property but also a separation of their own thoughts, perspectives, and expressions.

Through Frost´s significant use of detail and accounting for gestures made, the sense of character that describes each of the two men is established. The speaker draws attention to his neighbor’s gestures so that his character is defined not through verbal actions but rather physical actions: “Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top / In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed/ He moves in darkness.” The neighbor is a quiet individual with few words but many actions. While, the speaker, who has been inner self-observing, is a dreamer. His character is developed more on what goes through his head, as he spends a majority of the poem observing the other man´s work and imagining several different hypothetical scenarios that he fails to bring up in a conversation.

Hence, Frost has not only achieved in fashioning characterizations of two men in search of separateness but also has fashioned two individualistic, unconnected entities that touch upon human differences. This engaging and compelling difference between the two is founded on Frost´s astonishing diction and delivery. He manages to be colloquial yet profound. There are several lines throughout the work that tempt the mind and please the voice due to rhythm and the short and conversational words. Even repetition as noted with the lines ‘Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,’ and ‘Good fences make good neighbors’ serve as a tension piece to draw attention to the different sides of the argument. Moreover, the poem doesn’t contain any stanza breaks, which allows the work to visually reflect a rock wall turned on its side. The ¨cracks¨ or ¨holes¨ in the stone wall is visible in the way that the line endings form a jagged line that goes up and down. These techniques work cohesively to allow the ¨Mending Wall¨ to resonate so consummately with readers.

Poems by William Blake

Primarily, Blake intends to expose the cruelty of life and society as well as the consequences of the Christians’ beliefs regarding suffering and hardship. The Chimney Sweeper begins by informing readers that the speaker was quite young when a tragic event occurred by stating, “ When my mother died I was very young” (Blake Songs of Innocence). Even though the poem does not reveal what killed the boy’s mother, it alludes that her death somehow influenced his unfortunate fate. The boy argues that after his mother’s death, the father got the opportunity to sell him to work in the chimneys, which might not have happened if the mother was alive.

Also, there is an allusion to the church’s teachings as contributing to the plight of the children of this society. In the second poem Songs of Experience, the parents of a boy, whom the author rhetorically refers to as a little black thing, left him to die in the snow as they went to the church to pray. Blake warns society of maltreating children. In the first poem Songs of Innocence, the author likens children to innocence or the kingdom of God. Here, he creates imagery of the suffering children being rescued by an angel, who symbolizes that the children, although oppressed by their parents and society, are generally accepted in the holy kingdom. The use of word white is used to describe children and emphasizes their innocence.

“Blake compiled the poems during the 18th century when English society depended on child labor in cleaning chimneys due to their small sizes” (Wheatley and Searle 46). Therefore, the selling of young children in this labor market was not uncommon. “Unfortunately, even though this business was explicit oppression and violation of children’s welfare, it was generally accepted by the society of the time” (Wheatley and Searle 46). Even worse is the fact that these children were subjected to humiliating conditions at the chimneys such as hunger, inadequate clothing, respiratory complications, and other bad conditions that often caused their deaths. Hence, Blake compiled this poem to show society child maltreatment.

Poems by Richard Crashaw

Crashaw reflects on the massacre of children during the reign of King Herod, as explained in the gospel of Matthew 2. In ‘upon the infant martyrs,’ Crashaw appears to question the significance of the massacre and how heaven will reward these young martyrs The poem begins with rhetoric that enables a reader to paint the image of the day of the massacre. The use of ‘mother’s milk in the second line is an indication that the children were quite young. However, despite being innocent, they faced the massacre due to religious issues. In the last two lines, the author writes “Make me doubt if heaven will gather Roses hence, or lilies rather”(Crashaw). He is explaining if heaven will collect roses or lilies in their remembrance. Mostly, the usage of roses depicts honor, love, or beauty. However, lilies, as applied during Easter celebrations, imply resurrection or life after death. Therefore, Crashaw questions the reward between being honored or resurrected that the children who died in this massacre will receive. In other words, he makes Christians meditate about the reward that is equivalent to the heinous nature of the massacre.

However, in the second poem, ‘to the infant martyrs,’ Crashaw reveals some benefits accrued to the martyrs. In the second line, the poet promises them that they will learn to sing. He also indicates that the milk will be in all their ways. There is a chance that the use of milk in this section implies that the young martyrs will have access to plenty of food.

I view Crashaw’s poems as intended to make Christians reflect on the significance of some of the events that happen in the name of religion. Like Crashaw, critics might question the exact significance of King Herod’s hostility. More importantly, one wonders why innocent children would have to die in such a horrible version. From a different perspective, Crashaw’s ideas endorse the vulnerability of children to oppression, as explained by Blake.

Poem by Robert Frost

Frost’s Mending Wall intends to explore the significance of keeping some privacy in relationships. Notably, the poem reflects the time when American farmers used to have walls to prevent their livestock from entering into their neighbors’ farms. Specifically, it involves two neighbors who had met to repair a wall between their farms. However, the narrator is skeptical of the tradition, particularly since the two farms do not have any animals, but only apples and pine trees. Therefore, according to him, such walls existed for fulfilling tradition but never served any real significance. Still, the narrator had realized that there was something in the natural world that disliked walls. For example, mysterious gaps develop, and borders often fall “And makes gaps even two can pass abreast” (Frost). , Walls were not strong enough to serve the intended purpose. The speaker introduces some ambiguity since he does not clarify what causes gaps or the falling of borders. However, the speaker’s neighbor keeps insisting that good fences make good neighbors.

Notably, the poem raises contradicting but significant themes. Based on the speaker’s views, it seems that walls restrict interactions, and in so doing, they compromise relationships. In reality, relationships grow when neighbors or people interact with each other. Indeed, the interaction might lead to supporting each other in many activities that result in a stronger relationship. Even in the context of the poem, having no wall would enable the speaker and the neighbor to meet regularly and have a more stable relationship. Lastly, mending walls offers insights into the ways that governments can apply to foster good relationships with the neighboring countries. Open borders mostly encourage trade between citizens of neighboring countries as well as a close relationship between governments. However, as the speaker’s neighbor narrates, walls or borders can be the only option at times. “In the United States, for example, open borders have been associated with promoting drug trafficking, money laundering, and increased risks of terrorism” (Caparini and Marin 224).

Channel Firing by Thomas Hardy

Hardy’s poem illustrate humans’ conflict and the disruption that wars cause. It begins with the speaker, who is a dead person, discussing the noises that great guns made that eventually shook all their coffins. The use of dead people is used to emphasize the devastating conditions created by wars. This means if the dead feel disrupted and embarrassed by wars, the living must feel more humiliated.

Apart from mentioning of dead people, the poet used some words to make the reader paint the picture of how destructive wars can become. The narrator states “We thought it was the Judgment-day” (Hardy). Religious people believe that this last day will mostly be the most troubling. The expected sounds of trumpet and the agony of those who will not manage to get to the kingdom of heaven are some of the unpleasant expectations of judgment day. Thus, this phrase creates the imagery of the turmoil that accompanies wars. God’s voice in the third paragraph affirms humans as violent creatures. He clarifies that it is not judgment day, but the world is as it was before the dead went below the sea –implying that humans have always been violent. However, some other aspects of this poem indicate that the wars mostly affect human beings either living or dead only. In the third paragraph, for instance, the poet indicates that the “glebe cow drooled” (Hardy). This phrase reveals that these cows of the fields went on with their daily routines, despite the agony inflicted by human conflicts.

Besides exploring the aspects of human violence, the poem has another theme; religious distortions that influence people to fight in the name of God. The narrator argues that nations have been committed to making red wars more intense for the sake of Christ Therefore, Hardy concurs with the sentiments of poets like Blake and Crashaw that the church can directly or indirectly influence social problems.

I believe this poem was a reflection of the events that societies were experiencing in the early 1900s or the late 1800s. Indeed, since the Crimean war of the 1850s, the world had experienced a series of other bloody conflicts such as the American Civil War, the Russo-Japanese War, conflicts in the Ottoman Empire, the Mexican Revolution, and many other ethnic wars (Murray 1). Therefore, Hardy used observations learned from the human relations of the time to predict the occurrence of similar wars in the future as well as their expected consequences. The poem offers significant lessons for human beings to understand their susceptibility to violence which often causes adverse effects on the human race. People should always believe in the occurrence of future wars and, if possible, ensure the development of mechanisms that can calm this historical suffering

Works Cited

1. Blake, William. ‘The chimney sweeper: from songs of innocence and from songs of experience.” 1789, 1793.
2. Caparini, Marina, and Otwin Marenin. Borders and security governance: Managing borders in a globalized world. Zurich: Lit, 2006. Print.
3. Crashaw, Richard. ‘Upon the infant martyrs,’ and ‘To the infant martyrs.’ 17th century.
4. Frost, Robert. ‘Mending wall.’ 1914.
5. Hardy, Thomas. ‘Channel firing.’ 1914.
6. Murray, Damien. Irish nationalists in Boston: Catholicism and conflict, 1900-1928. CUA Press, 2018.
7. Wheatley, Nadia, and Ken Searle. Australians Aal: A history of growing up: from the Ice Age to the Apology. Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 2013. Print.