Mending Wall Annotated

Many of the social divisions that have existed for years, and continue to exist are unnecessarily harmful, but we are ignorant, and are too cowardly to change. In “Mending Wall”, the speaker begins to question the necessity of the wall that separates himself and his neighbour- the wall being a metaphor for the divisions between them in their personal lives. He starts off with the same opinion as his neighbour-interact as little as possible, getting angry that the “wall” is being constantly destroyed by both nature and humans. He initiates the contact with his neighbour for what is seemingly their only formal meeting, and even so, “To each the boulders have fallen to each” (16), he doesn’t help his neighbour, he deals with only the rocks that

The mood contrasts the tone which is very straightforward, and blunt- we know at all times where the poet stands, even if we aren’t sure what the speaker’s opinion is. The poem is a free verse ballad. The first 23 lines is the speaker telling the story of the wall, and the routine he and his neighbour go through each spring. The last 27 lines is the speaker questioning the existence of the wall, and concluding by leaving the wall in place. The language used is elementary, excellent for conversations. The images cast in this poem are of nature. The poet describes the crumbling of the wall as “the frozen-ground-swell under it, and spills the upper boulders in the sun” (2-3). He chalks down the differences between himself and his neighbour to: “he is all pine, and I am apple orchard.”

The poem is also completely ironic in the sense that, although the speaker wishes for the wall to be taken down, he will “let my neighbour know beyond the hill” (12); meaning he will initiate the wall building. Also the speaker only makes fruitless attempts to “put a notion in his head” (29). There is some repetition of key words and phrases such as the words “spring” (11, 28), “wall” (1, 14, 15, 23, 32, 33, 34), and the phrase ““Good fences make good neighbours”” (27, 45).There is only one simile in this poem “In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed” (40) which describe the roughness of the neighbour and his insistence on the wall’s existence. There is some imagery, like “I see him there” (38), and “No one has seen them made or heard them