mending wall by robert frost
Rachel Hernandez
Updated on July 01, 2026
The main theme of “Mending Wall” is the difficulty of change in society. Social customs and traditions are important sometimes, but Frost points out the struggle to change the same once they are rooted in society.
What does Robert Frost mean in Mending Wall?
“Mending Wall” is a poem written by the poet Robert Frost. The poem describes two neighbors who repair a fence between their estates. It is, however, obvious that this situation is a metaphor for the relationship between two people. The wall is the manifestation of the emotional barricade that separates them.
What kind of poem is the Mending Wall?
Robert Frost wrote “Mending Wall” in blank verse, a form of poetry with unrhymed lines in iambic pentamenter, a metric scheme with five pairs of syllables per line, each pair containing an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The first four lines of the poem demonstrate the pattern.
What is the irony in Mending Wall?
Perhaps the greatest irony in the poem “Mending Wall” is that the speaker continues to help rebuild the wall even as he realizes he disagrees with its presence.
What is the poet trying to say through the poem Mending Wall?
The poem considers the contradictions in life and humanity, including the contradictions within each person, as man “makes boundaries and he breaks boundaries”. It also examines the role of boundaries in human society, as mending the wall serves both to separate and to join the two neighbors, another contradiction.
Why do the two neighbors meet in Mending Wall?
Why do the two neighbors meet in the poem? To mend a wall. What is the speaker’s neighbor’s favorite saying?
Why does the neighbor say that good fences make good Neighbours in Mending Wall?
Why does the neighbor say that “good fences make good neighbours” in “Mending Wall”? He is repeating what his father used to say.
Why did the Neighbour want to rebuild the wall in the poem Mending Wall?
In “Mending Wall,” the neighbors repair the wall every spring because “Good fences make good neighbors”–at least, this is the answer the narrator’s neighbor gives him when he asks.
Why does the speaker think the wall is unnecessary?
The speaker sees no reason for the wall to be kept—there are no cows to be contained, just apple and pine trees. He does not believe in walls for the sake of walls.
What is personification in Mending Wall?
Personification – “My apple trees will never get across/and eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.” – The speaker feels that the wall is silly.
Who originally said good fences make good neighbors?
Not of woods only and the shade of trees. He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors. ‘ One of the most celebrated figures in American poetry, Robert Frost was the author of numerous poetry collections, including including New Hampshire (Henry Holt and Company, 1923).
What does the poet mean by the following line and some are loaves and some so nearly balls?
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls”. This quoteshows a metaphor, the poet is talking about fallen rocks where the stone wall was. By describingthe the rocks saying that the stones are loaves. Then others the size of a ball.