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Robert FrostA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
The most widely accepted reading of “Mending Wall” sees the eponymous wall as representing the barriers people build and maintain between each other. Sometimes these barriers are literal, like Frost’s example of property boundaries between neighbors. These physical lines can be much grander in scale too, like the borders between countries. “Mending Wall” has found special relevance in these scenarios. President Ronald Reagan may have alluded to it in his famous 1987 speech encouraging Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, and the poem saw a resurgence in popularity in response to the Trump Administration’s proposed border wall between the United States and Mexico. Historically, it has been used to bolster arguments on both sides of debates about nationalism, international borders, and immigration.
However, the barriers between people can be mental, too. The speaker sees himself as more playful, more educated, more flexible, and more civilized than his neighbor. He sees pointless barriers between people as time wasters at best, harmful at worst. While Frost may seem at first to sympathize with the speaker, he is careful not to weigh the scales too heavily in his favor. There is something to be said for the neighbor’s more conservative approach, for his dedication to hard work and reliability and his respect for tradition.
By Robert Frost
Acquainted with the Night
Acquainted with the Night
Robert Frost
After Apple-Picking
After Apple-Picking
Robert Frost
A Time To Talk
A Time To Talk
Robert Frost
Birches
Birches
Robert Frost
Dust of Snow
Dust of Snow
Robert Frost
Fire and Ice
Fire and Ice
Robert Frost
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Robert Frost
October
October
Robert Frost
Once by the Pacific
Once by the Pacific
Robert Frost
Out, Out—
Out, Out—
Robert Frost
Putting in the Seed
Putting in the Seed
Robert Frost
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening
Robert Frost
The Death of the Hired Man
The Death of the Hired Man
Robert Frost
The Gift Outright
The Gift Outright
Robert Frost
The Road Not Taken
The Road Not Taken
Robert Frost
West-Running Brook
West-Running Brook
Robert Frost