Metaphorical Fences In A Fence By Carl Sandburg

The poem “A Fence” by Carl Sandburg talks about how metaphorical defenses or ”fences” can keep unfavorable elements from your life, such as “vagabonds and hungry men”, but also favorable elements such as “wondering children”. One example of metaphorical fences is being wary of people, it can keep the unsound type of people out of one’s life, but it may also cause building friendships a bit more difficult. The poem mentions how complex some fences can be and how it can hurt others that may try to go through them. Everybody has a fence, some are high, some are short. However, they can never keep three things out: “Death and the Rain and To-morrow.”

As I’ve mentioned, everybody has some type of fence, and I’m not exempt. What I would imagine

my fence to be is how I’m always anxious to engage in social activity because I might say something I shouldn’t have or often I won’t know how to properly react to things, and words tend to not come out the way I planned, and it always feels so weird and awkward for me. This fence helps me filter what I say, but it also creates anxiety to whether I’m saying or doing acceptable things. I tend to open up after I’ve know someone for a long time. For example, once I was at a convention with my friend, and we drifted away in the Art’s hall, though we combined to meet at the entrance again. He sent me a message saying he found one of his friends and her group. I thought it was alright and I would like to meet them after I finished. I couldn’t find him anywhere and he wouldn’t answer my messages. He was the only person I knew at the convention and I began wondering if it was something I said or done or if he simply had come with me to have someone to be with in the train.