Mending Wall by Robert Frost was said to be one of his favourite poems. Mending Wall is about the building of a wall between two men and their houses, however, looking deeper into the meaning, the poem seems to suggest the establishing of boundaries between elements of the physical world as well as the inner world. This seems to be suggested not only by the poem but perhaps by Frost's upbringing as he always showed a great appreciation for nature and sharing the world in all of his poems. The two neighbours in this poem seem to be building the wall initially about territory, but if we look deeper into it, it seems to be more about marking boundaries to stop arguments. The neighbours do not share the same ideology about the building of the wall. It seems as though they must repeat this task every Springtime, but whereas one neighbor does it through tradition and because he wants to, the other appears to be just going along with it; he does not seem to understand. .
The title itself "Mending Wall" seems to suggest something about the poem. The adjective "Mending" takes the gerund, which means it, is talking about the present. Perhaps this suggest that the task is continuos and always there. Also the fact that it is not called "Mending The Wall" or "Mending A Wall" suggests that it is not just one wall, but it can be any wall anywhere. The title it is given makes the meaning of it very universal. .
We get the feeling of one neighbour being quite dominant over the other. The first clue we get to the narrator of the tale being quite passive is the line "I let my neighbour know beyond a hill;" Firstly the way he lets his neighbour know shows that he wants to do the right thing by informing him, yet if he does not really agree with the building of the wall, he would not bother to inform him. Another thing that suggests the submissiveness is the way "beyond a hill" is used. It suggest boundaries and being far apart from one another; they do not seem to have good communications.
