Thursday, July 19, 2012
Mending Wall
I found it interesting how Frost's poem, Mending Wall, referred to such a simple theme. The poem is literally about two neighbors discussing their opinions of putting a fence up. Both neighbor's opinion's differ. Although, if this poem is applied to real life I believe it displays a larger meaning. It says we shouldn't put up walls to those around us. We never know, we may be shutting out people who could affect our lives the most. We may miss out on opportunities if our guard is constantly up. In concern to lite.rary devises, this poem is in closed form or free verse. It does not have a rhyme scheme. Although, it may a blank verse because it has ten syllables per line. For example the first two lines consist of "Something there is that doesn't lovea wall, That sends the frozen-ground-well under it" (Frost 1-2). Also, the use of diction is quite simple. This goes with the simple theme of the poem.
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Conner, in the second half of the poem, I can't help but think that the two are arguing their points. One neighbor wants to have an open relationship (as you talk of) and the other, not so much--which of course for him, "Good fences make good neighbors." I see teh struggle that a fence brings literally, but, like you, also as a symbol--it brings emotional and even physical problems. Thus literal and imaginery walls bring us to differences that we have to work through, or else those walls create higher and more impenetrable walls that can never be taken back down when all involved decide to create open and positive relationships.
ReplyDeleteWhat was also interesting, was the line, "We wear our fingers rough with handling them". This refers to how hard it is to build the wall, so in one sense, why bother then. But I wonder, too, if as we build imaginery walls, what affect that has on us emotionally---in other words, I believe those imaginery walls tear us up inside, like those fingers being torn up.