Mending Wall, a poem by Robert Frost

There have been famous walls throughout history, designed to keep people in, or keep people out, or both: the walls of Jericho, the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall, the Berlin Wall, Israel’s West Bank Wall . . . 

One of the early poems of Robert Frost (1874-1963) is called “Mending Wall” and was published in 1914.

The narrator of the poem describes how each year in Spring he and his neighbor meet to walk the wall separating their properties to inspect and make repairs. The speaker sees no reason for a wall when there is no stock to be confined, when there are only apple and pine trees, but his neighbour simply replies “Good fences make good neighbors”. 

Some interesting images and themes:

• Each Spring they repair the wall from damage caused by hunters and nature. The wall keeps falling, they keep putting the rocks back, much like Sisyphus, the mythological figure who was condemned to push a boulder to the top of a high hill, only to have it roll down each time he gets it to the top, and force him to do it all again.

• The speaker envisages two types of people: wall builders and wall breakers, those who want walls and the barriers they create and those who feel that such barriers should be assessed in terms of need: “… I’d ask to know / What I was walling in or walling out, / And to whom I was like to give offense.”

• Yet it is the speaker who initiates the contact each Spring, acknowledging that the speaker may well feel that the wall makes good neighbors.

• On a broader symbolic level, the wall represents order out of chaos, boundaries, orderliness.

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Mending Wall

Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.'

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That wants it down.' I could say ‘Elves’ to him,

But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

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 neighbors.'

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Mending Wall, a poem by Robert Frost

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From the archives, since there is so much talk of walls . . .

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There have been famous walls throughout history, designed to keep people in, or keep people out, or both: the walls of Jericho, the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall, the Berlin Wall, Israel’s West Bank Wall . . . 

One of the early poems of Robert Frost (1874-1963) is called “Mending Wall” and was published in 1914.

The narrator of the poem describes how each year in Spring he and his neighbor meet to walk the wall separating their properties to inspect and make repairs. The speaker sees no reason for a wall when there is no stock to be confined, when there are only apple and pine trees, but his neighbour simply replies “Good fences make good neighbors”. 

Some interesting images and themes:

Each Spring they repair the wall from damage caused by hunters and nature. The wall keeps falling, they keep putting the rocks back, much like Sisyphus, the mythological figure who was condemned to push a boulder to the top of a high hill, only to have it roll down each time he gets it to the top, and force him to do it all again.

The speaker envisages two types of people: wall builders and wall breakers, those who want walls and the barriers they create and those who feel that such barriers should be assessed in terms of need: 

“… I’d ask to know 

What I was walling in or walling out, 

And to whom I was like to give offense.”

Yet it is the speaker who initiates the contact each Spring, acknowledging that the speaker may well feel that the wall makes good neighbors.

On a broader symbolic level, the wall represents order out of chaos, boundaries, orderliness.

__________________________________

Mending Wall

Robert Frost, 1874 - 1963

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on a stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,

No one has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders that have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need the wall:

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.'

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offense.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That wants it down.' I could say ‘Elves’ to him,

But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

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 neighbors.'

Fence Week, continued: Facts and Trivia, Pt 1

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Fences and Walls: 

A fence is a structure enclosing an area, or separating one area from another, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or netting. 

A fence differs from a wall in that generally, walls are made of solid materials such as concrete while fences are made of light materials such as wire mesh among other materials. Fences, unlike walls, can be made of live plants. 

(Some of the items below relate to walls as well as fences).

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Origin of the word “fence”: 

The word “fence” comes from “defence", originally “defense”. It entered English in the early 14th century from the Old French “defense,” which was derived from the Latin “defendere,” meaning “to protect; defend.” Although the word “fence” developed in the 14th century meaning “the action of defending,” by the 15th century “fence” was beginning to assume its modern meaning of “barrier” or “enclosure.” 

The use of “fence” to mean “use of a sword in combat,” as in “fencing”, developed in the 17th century. It was based on the blocking of one’s opponent’s strikes so that it too is based on “defense”. 

The use of “fence” as criminal slang to mean a person who buys stolen goods dates back to the 17th century. Again this relates to the original concept of “defense” in that a criminal fence, by buying “hot” goods from a thief, provides a defence by relieving the thief of the burden of holding the evidence (and quite possibly being caught with it) until a buyer can be found. Once stolen goods are “fenced,” it becomes much harder to prove theft. One writer has commented that in the context of this meaning, good fences make life easier for bad neighbors. 

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Robert Frost popularised the saying “Good fences make good neighbors” with his 1914 poem "Mending Wall": 

... 

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 neighbors.' 

He did not, however, originate it. The Dictionary of Proverbs lists it as a mid 17th century proverb. Similar sentiments have been expressed in other countries and cultures. Even Benjmain Franklin had a view: "Love thy neighbor, yet don't pull down your hedge." 

“Mending Wall" is an ambiguous poem in meaning. Some believe the narrator of the poem dislikes the wall that divides him from his neighbor. Others think the poem tells the story of a well-established relationship and ritual between two friends and neighbours. 

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Beginnings of fences: 

Fences originated from a need to prevent domesticated livestock from roaming and to keep them out of cultivated areas such as gardens and crop fields. or fields of crops, where they were unwanted. The earliest fences were made of available materials, usually stone or wood. Where stones were plentiful, fences were built up by the stones being removed from cultivated areas, which meant that stone walls and fences were built up over the years, even continuing to this day. In other areas, fences were constructed of timber. Log fences or split-rail fences were simple fences constructed in newly cleared areas by stacking log rails. Earth could also be used as a fence; an example was what is now called the sunken fence, or "ha-ha," a type of wall built by digging a ditch with one steep side (which animals cannot scale) and one sloped side (where the animals roam). 

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Dry stone fences and walls:

Many areas of England and even Australia have stone fences, but they are especially prolific in Ireland. Many of those fences are the result of clearing land of stones for agriculture, the quality of the fences and walls (which are usually constructed dry) vary from simple stacking to sturdy placement by stonemasons. 

Dry stone wall, Australia, with rabbit hole in front 

England 

Ireland 

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Famine Walls:

There are stone walls and fences in Ireland that go straight up and down mountain sides, not serving any discernible function. These walls were built during the time of the Great Famine, which followed the potato blight of 1845-1849. The Irish were disproportionately reliant on potatoes, which led to widespread starvation, as well as disease. 

At that time wealthy British landowners living in Ireland extended loans that had to be earned through work.  That work was the building of stone walls from the base of mountains to the tops, walls that had no purpose. Because the people who had to do the work were starving and weak, it was much harder on them. The walls and fences so built, which still stand today, are known as Famine Walls.

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Spite fences and walls: 

A spite fence is a term used to refer to an overly tall fence, structure in the nature of a fence, or a row of trees, bushes, or hedges, constructed or planted by someone to annoy a neighbor, the effect being to deprive the neighbour of a view. 

Several US states and local governments have regulations to prohibit spite fences, or related regulations such as those establishing a maximum allowed height for fences. In the United Kingdom, the terms spite wall or blinder wall (as in, to blind the view of a neighbour) are more commonly used. 

Charles Crocker, a railroad investor and owner of a house on Nob Hill in San Francisco, built a high fence to spoil his neighbour’s view after the neighbor wanted many times the market value of his property to sell to Crocker. The fence finally came down in 1905 after Crocker’s estate bought the neighbour’s property from the neighbour’s widow’s estate. In 1906 the Crcoker mansion and neighbouring buildings were gutted by fire as a result of the San Francisco earthquake, Rather than rebuild, Crocker’s family decided to donate the block to charity and it became the site of a cathedral. Funnily enough a site of hostility and hate became one of love and compassion. 

A spite wall in Lancashire, England, built in 1880 by the owner of the land on the left, in reaction to the unwanted construction of the house on the right. In those days there was no such thing as planning permission so the house on the left built this very solid wall two stories high right on the edge of their land boundary and very near to the wall and windows of the house on the right. It has become a famous structure which people now come to see. 

Same spite wall as above - bad fences (and walls) make bad neighbours.

Spite fence, Toronto, 1937 

Spite Wall, “Calderville”, Brooklyn US. 1919

Fence Week, #1

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The below fable starts a week of fence items, so welcome to Fence Week, dear readers.

I know what you're thinking. . .  BORING!

So let's see if Fence Week can be made interesting over the next 7 days.

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Aesop’s Fable: The Wolf and the Lamb

A flock of sheep were feeding in a meadow while their dogs were asleep, and their shepherd at a distance, playing on his pipe beneath the shade of a spreading elm.

A young, inexperienced Lamb, observing a half-starved Wolf peering through the pales of the enclosure, entered into conversation with him. “Pray, what are you seeking for here?” said the Lamb “I am looking,” replied the Wolf, “for some tender grass; for nothing, you know, is more pleasant than to feed in a fresh pasture, and to slake one’s thirst at a crystal stream, both which I perceive you enjoy within these pales in their utmost perfection. Happy creature,” continued he, “how much I envy your lot, who are in full possession of the utmost I desire; for philosophy has long taught me to be satisfied with a little!”

“It seems, then,” returned the Lamb, “those who say you feed on flesh accuse you falsely, since a little grass will easily content you. If this be true, let us for the future live like brethren, and feed together.”

So saying, the simple Lamb immediately crept through the fence, and at once became a prey to the pretended philosopher, and a sacrifice to his own inexperience and credulity.

Moral:

There is a reason for fences; don’t stray out of bounds.

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By the way, I’m not reposting the item on Robert Frost’s poem Mending a Wall but for those interested, here is the link:

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com/search?q=mending+a+wall

Worth a revisit

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The following item is not related to fences as such but it does relate to bars of a cage, which is like a mini-fence of sorts.

Funnily enough, as I was typing the Aesop's Fable story, the following item was mentioned on an episode of QI that Kate was watching.

The story, documented by names of persons involved, is that a little girl brought her hamster to a veterinary practice because it hadn’t moved for three days,  just sat by the side of the cage and wouldn’t eat or drink.

The girl was asked if anything had happened to the animal before this and she replied he had escaped and was found under the fridge. 

When the vets took the hamster out of his cage he began walking around normally, which they didn’t understand. After further examination, the hamster was found to have something in its mouth, that something being a fridge magnet in his cheek pouch.  

For 3 days he had been stuck to the cage bars by the magnet.

https://metro.co.uk/2017/07/06/pet-hamster-stuck-to-cage-for-three-days-after-eating-fridge-magnet-6759705/

Reafers Write, and I my Robert Frost

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From Diane M, in response to the item about the Little Free Library . . . 

Dear Otto  

Yes , I love the Bytes stories never knowing what you have for the day for me to read. 

It so interesting what and how you find this. 

Like the recent subject of the free reading books or exchange. 

I didn’t know about this, this is so great for kids and/or poor families which we also have here in Holland. 

Flying out on Saturday "Down Under "spending time with sons, grandchildren and greatgrandchilden. 

Who would have thought that I would have such a big family 29 years ago when I moved back to Holland. 

Life has many surprises. 

Keep up the good Bytes, will receive them on my Ipad in Aus. 

Take care 

Regards 

Diane 

Thanks Diane. 

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From Graham E in response to Funny Friday not getting posted for some reason last Friday week and I commented that I hoped readers would not get it twice when I posed it again the next day . . . 

Hi Mr O, 

Hopefully it was an unintentional gesture that your last corn corner joke was about the word reiterate, and not to get an extra laugh about Bytes being sent twice ! 

Mr G 

(Graham accompanied his comment with the following) . . .

Thanks Graham.

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From Charlie Z in response to the Robert Frost poem Mending Wall: 

Otto - If my aging memory serves me still ..... I think Robert Frost spoke at John Kennedy's inauguration. And I recall the "Mending Wall" poem from high school in Western Pennsylvania, at a time when they still taught poetry, and English literature, in high school. 

Thanks for the Bytes! And the art associated with today's is terrific! 

Charlie Z 

Thanks Charlie. 

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From Steve M in response to the portraits of persons from India: 

Loved the photography from India in today’s Bytes, Otto. We have been to India twice, and would go back tomorrow if the opportunity arose. The place is an enigma. It’s full of amazing contrasts, colours, smells, texture, optimism, pain, sadness, pride (misplaced and genuine), unbelievable food, good old fashioned bureaucracy, hypocrisy and some of the most truly wonderful, fascinating people on earth. 

For Byters who have never been, go; for Byters who don’t want to go, you are missing out! 

Thanks, Steve. 

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Carlie and readers, some more Robert Frost: 

The following poem, one of Robert Frost’s most popular, was posted by me in 2010 without comments. It is worth a second outing . . . 

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening 

Whose woods these are I think I know. 

His house is in the village, though; 

He will not see me stopping here 

To watch his woods fill up with snow. 

My little horse must think it queer 

To stop without a farmhouse near 

Between the woods and frozen lake 

The darkest evening of the year. 

He gives his harness bells a shake 

To ask if there is some mistake. 

The only other sounds the sweep 

Of easy wind and downy flake. 

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep, 

But I have promises to keep, 

And miles to go before I sleep, 

And miles to go before I sleep. 

- Robert Frost (1874-1963) 

From wikipedia: 

Frost wrote the poem in June 1922 at his house in Shaftsbury, Vermont. He had been up the entire night writing the long poem "New Hampshire" and had finally finished when he realized morning had come. He went out to view the sunrise and suddenly got the idea for "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". He wrote the new poem "about the snowy evening and the little horse as if I'd had a hallucination" in just "a few minutes without strain". 

In the early morning of November 23, 1963, Sid Davis of Westinghouse Broadcasting reported the arrival of President John F. Kennedy's casket to the White House. As Frost was one of the President's favorite poets, Davis concluded his report with a passage from this poem but was overcome with emotion as he signed off:

I was broadcasting the arrival with my Westinghouse colleague Ann Corrick. I had covered Kennedy from his 1960 election through the debacle of his Bay of Pigs decision, his triumph in the Cuban Missile Crisis, to Dallas. Now he was gone. I chose, unwisely, to close the broadcast with a verse from Robert Frost’s “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” a poem often quoted by President Kennedy at the end of his speeches during his presidential campaign:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

In tears, I was unable to finish it. 

At the funeral of former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, on October 3, 2000, his eldest son Justin rephrased the last stanza of this poem in his eulogy: 

"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. He has kept his promises and earned his sleep."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stopping_by_Woods_on_a_Snowy_Evening

Fence Week continued

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I grew up in suburbia where, if there was a fence, it was invariably a derelict paling fence with a choko vine or passionfruit vine growing over it, generally not in as good condition as . . . 

Chokos, for the uninitiated, are a vegetable that hang on vines and look like this:

They’re usually served cooked with butter spread over them . . .

. . .  but, in the words of Crocodile Dundee . . .

I was put in mind of those early days when I discovered that the neighbor on the other side of our rear fence had decided to repair the fence.  I don’t know those neighbors, have never met them.  The way the neighbor fixed the fence was by taking down the palings and instead affixing old gates that he must have obtained somewhere . . .

Those are Kate's compost bins in front

It also brings to mind Robert Frost quoting his next door owner in his poem Mending Wall: ”Good fences make good neighbours.”

Perhaps today there are still old paling fences in suburbia with choko vines, perhaps people even eat chokos, though a passionfruit vine on the fence would be far preferable . . .

Fences have evolved since those days, here are some decorated fences for inspiration, wonder if I should tackle my back fence . . .

Marbles inserted into holes