Mending Wall

-Robert Frost

Mending Wall is one of Frost's popular poems. There are two farmers in the poem - the old farmer arguing for the retention of a fence and the other young farmer wanting to pull it down.

The old farmer's arguments

There is an old farmer who says that walls are necessary. His point is that the fence will demarcate accurately his farm from his neighbour's. There will not be any room for misunderstanding. He says repeatedly that 'good fences make good neighbour's. He is very conventional. He wants to mend the broken wall between the two farms.

The young farmer's arguments

The young farmer holds very progressive views. He says that something in nature is against building of divisive walls. Walls keep cracking up and falling down. This means that nature is in favour of unification not of division. The young man thinks of the ancient times when people lived close to nature and were not separated from one another by artificial barriers. The young man says that fences are necessary only if there are cows. Here are no cows. So no fence is necessary. Moreover, the young man grows apple in his orchard but the neighbour grows pine in his farm. This difference clearly separates the two farms. The old and the young men advance arguments for and against mending the wall. Finally, both of them start building the wall with the stones that have fallen down. The young man's views are rejected by the old man.

The symbols in the poem

There are some apt symbols in the poem. The "Wall" stands for all kinds of man-made barriers. The barriers may be due to racial, linguistic, religious, political or economic differences. The old man who insists on mending the wall is described as a 'savage'. That is, his views are very old fashioned. The young man who wants to pull down the wall is described as a mischievous elf'. That is, the abolition of barriers is nothing but mischief and irresponsibility. It will create only confusion.