Mending Wall

In “Mending Wall”, Robert Frost uses analogies to demonstrate barriers in a damaged friendship. Frost’s analogies are used in the themes of barriers, nature, and walls. Throughout the poem, Frost uses metaphors to enable the reader to view the wall, separating the neighbors from a different perspective. His use of comparisons appeal to the reader because, as a reader they are things we can relate to and experience in life. His use of analogies allows the reader to envision a friendship being torn apart.

In the poem “Mending Wall”, the speaker and his neighbor’s friendship is damaged. They have both physical and emotional barriers. In lines 40-42 he says, “before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or out, and to whom I was like to give offence.” It is evident that the speaker does not like this idea, and this is both a physical and emotional barrier. In lines 10-14 the speaker says, “The gaps I mean, no one has seen them made or heard them made, but at spring mending-time we find them there.” The speaker and his neighbor has been going an extensive period of time without noticing the gaps forming between them . This is an example of a physical and emotional barrier. In lines 48-49 the speaker says, “Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top in each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. This is also a physical and emotional barrier. These barriers are also demonstrated in the uses of nature and metaphors.

In the poem “Mending Wall” the speaker frequently talks about a wall. In lines 40-42 he says, “before I built a wall I’d ask to know what i was walling in or out, and to whom I was like to give offence.” A wall can symbolize many things. It can symbolize an emotional or physical barrier. The wall physically ser...

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...hat wants the wall down. The elves are used as a metaphor for the forces that are making the wall come down and that are causing them to have to rebuild the wall. Also in the definition of an elf it says a mischievous interference in human affairs. Therefore it makes sense as to why the neighbor would say that elves are the cause of the wall coming down.

Frost’s use of analogies induces the reader to feel as if they are one of the neighbors in the poem. His use of comparisons engages the reader, because they are very pragmatic. His work is full of barriers that we as people experience in relationships and can relate to. After reading this poem the reader has a better understanding of what the wall really symbolizes. ”Mending Wall” enables to the reader to view the poem from a different perspective and allows the reader to put themselves in the place of the speaker.