Qwerty Dvorak
25th October 2006, 00:12
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 out-door 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 offence.
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."
We were looking at this poem in English class today. Now, the vast majority of critics will tell you that the poem is very much open to interpretation, more so than most other poetry by Frost. However, my initial interpretation of the poem, and the one that was explained to us by our English teacher, which seems to me to be the most legitimate, is as a criticism of the outdated concepts of private property, of tradition and ultimately of division.
Think about it. The poem begins by claiming that 'Something there is that doesn't love a wall', and that that thing 'sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.'
The implication here is that this thing is nature. Nature is what inexorably erodes the wall, because nature does not love the wall. Nature wants the wall to collapse. Any reader of Frost's poetry, especially Design, will know that Frost was very much interested in nature, and the concept that it had a consciousness (or at least a balance which it would attempt to restore if upset).
The main focus of the poem is the act of rebuilding the wall each year after it has been damaged by nature, an act undertaken by Frost and his neighbour. Frost here expresses his disdain for the task, viewing the wall and its upkeep as an unnecessary waste of time and effort. The wall here obviously represents the division between the two men. He asks the neighbour why they need a wall separating them when 'He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across', to which the neighbour replies 'Good fences make good neighbors.' This is an old proverb which in the context of this poem has little or no logic or truth, and it represents tradition.
Frost then asks 'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.' Here Frost is attempting to challenge the old proverb, and with it the reason for the existence of the wall, and the yearly hardship of mending it. In effect he is claiming that the tradition in this case has no logical basis, and so it does not justify the division between the two men. Frost then claims that '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 offence.'
The last of these three lines is notoriously open to interpretation, however my personal opinion is that he is speaking once again of nature, implying that division offends nature. This interpretation is supported by the following lines, in which he reiterates his claim that 'Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down.'
Frost finally gives a description of his neighbour as an 'old-stone savage armed', who 'moves in darkness as it seems to me', implying that he views his neighbour, who will not let go of tradition or of his nonsensical view of division as an ends rather than a means, as ignorant, trogladytic, and ultimately inferior.
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 out-door 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 offence.
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."
We were looking at this poem in English class today. Now, the vast majority of critics will tell you that the poem is very much open to interpretation, more so than most other poetry by Frost. However, my initial interpretation of the poem, and the one that was explained to us by our English teacher, which seems to me to be the most legitimate, is as a criticism of the outdated concepts of private property, of tradition and ultimately of division.
Think about it. The poem begins by claiming that 'Something there is that doesn't love a wall', and that that thing 'sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.'
The implication here is that this thing is nature. Nature is what inexorably erodes the wall, because nature does not love the wall. Nature wants the wall to collapse. Any reader of Frost's poetry, especially Design, will know that Frost was very much interested in nature, and the concept that it had a consciousness (or at least a balance which it would attempt to restore if upset).
The main focus of the poem is the act of rebuilding the wall each year after it has been damaged by nature, an act undertaken by Frost and his neighbour. Frost here expresses his disdain for the task, viewing the wall and its upkeep as an unnecessary waste of time and effort. The wall here obviously represents the division between the two men. He asks the neighbour why they need a wall separating them when 'He is all pine and I am apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across', to which the neighbour replies 'Good fences make good neighbors.' This is an old proverb which in the context of this poem has little or no logic or truth, and it represents tradition.
Frost then asks 'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.' Here Frost is attempting to challenge the old proverb, and with it the reason for the existence of the wall, and the yearly hardship of mending it. In effect he is claiming that the tradition in this case has no logical basis, and so it does not justify the division between the two men. Frost then claims that '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 offence.'
The last of these three lines is notoriously open to interpretation, however my personal opinion is that he is speaking once again of nature, implying that division offends nature. This interpretation is supported by the following lines, in which he reiterates his claim that 'Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That wants it down.'
Frost finally gives a description of his neighbour as an 'old-stone savage armed', who 'moves in darkness as it seems to me', implying that he views his neighbour, who will not let go of tradition or of his nonsensical view of division as an ends rather than a means, as ignorant, trogladytic, and ultimately inferior.