Poetry Project Group 5

1. Poetry ProjectGroup 5 1st Hour 3/30/12

2. “Mending Wall”Robert Frost A Something there is that doesn't love a wall, B That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, C And spills the upper boulders in the sun, D And makes gaps even two can pass abreast. E The work of hunters is another thing: F I have come after them and made repair G Where they have left not one stone on a stone, H But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, I To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean, J No one has seen them made or heard them made K But at spring mending-time we find them there. L I let my neighbor know beyond the hill; M And on a day we meet to walk the line N And set the wall between us once again. O We keep the wall between us as we go. P To each the boulders that have fallen to each. Q And some are loaves and some so nearly balls R We have to use a spell to make them balance: S 'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!' T We wear our fingers rough with handling them. U Oh, just another kind of out-door game, V One on a side. It comes to little more: W 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."

3. Analysis Once a year, two neighbors meet up to fix a stone wall that separates their property. The narrator questions the tradition, and he doesn’t understand the need for a wall when there is nothing on the property, except for apples and pine trees. He soon notices how the world seems to feel the exact same way as him. He thinks this because mysterious gaps appear, and boulders fall for no reason. However, the neighbor disagrees. He says, “Good fences make good neighbors.” The narrator attempts to convince his neighbor otherwise and accuses him of being old-fashioned. No matter what the narrator says, the neighbor sticks with his opinion, saying only: “Good fences make good neighbors.”

4. Relating to the Times The way the entire world is revolting about the fence being repeatedly built and rebuilt is relative to the nineteenth amendment. Women were continuously denied rights including the right to vote. Even though denying women the right to vote was idiotic and didn’t make sense it was a continuous occurrence. The neighbor represents the “civilized nations” that prevent women’s rights.

5. Devices in “Mending Wall” Alliteration- Frost uses alliteration: Before I built a wall I'd ask to know What I was walling in or walling out. Allusion- The only allusion in the poem was that of Napoleon Guy, Assonance- The most noticeable assonance Frost uses is through the youth. He uses the words, "why," "where," "for whom," and "what" to ask the questions that are bothering him. Imagery-The reader can vividly imagine the two neighbors working simultaneously, side by side, and without saying a word to one another. Metaphor- The metaphors in this poem are very abstract because the reader has to look very hard in order to get them. In line 17, the youth is talking about how the wall has dropped bricks the shape of, "loaves and balls." Personification- "Something there is that doesn't love a wall, / that send the frozen ground-swell under it/ and spills the upper-boulder in the sun (line 1-3) Simile- The only simile is the poem is referring to the old man. In line 38-40 the youth comments, "I see him there...like an old-savage armed," with this quote, we see that the old man is being compared to an old, primitive being who cannot accept change.

6. A The buzz saw snarled and rattled in the yard B And made dust and dropped stove-length sticks of wood, C Sweet-scented stuff when the breeze drew across it. D And from there those that lifted eyes could count E Five mountain ranges one behind the other F Under the sunset far into Vermont. G And the saw snarled and rattled, snarled and rattled, H As it ran light, or had to bear a load. I And nothing happened: day was all but done. J Call it a day, I wish they might have said K To please the boy by giving him the half hour L That a boy counts so much when saved from work. M His sister stood beside him in her apron N To tell them "Supper." At the word, the saw, O As if it meant to prove saws know what supper meant, Leaped out at the boy's hand, or seemed to leap – He must have given the hand. However it was, Neither refused the meeting. But the hand! Half in appeal, but half as if to keep The life from spilling. Then the boy saw all – Since he was old enough to know, big boy Doing a man's work, though a child at heart – He saw all was spoiled. "Don't let him cut my hand off - The doctor, when he comes. Don't let him, sister!" So. The hand was gone already. The doctor put him in the dark of ether. He lay and puffed his lips out with his breath. And then - the watcher at his pulse took a fright. No one believed. They listened to his heart. Little - less - nothing! - and that ended it. No more to build on there. And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs. “Out, Out”Robert Frost

7. Analysis A young guy is cutting firewood with a buzz saw. Later on in the day, his sister announces that it’s time for dinner and overjoyed, the boy accidentally cuts his hand with the saw. He begs his sister not to allow the doctor to amputate his hand, but he then realizes that he has already lost too much blood to survive. The boy soon dies while under anesthesia.

8. Relating to the Times The Boy that cuts his hand is like the United States joining World War II. The USA was doing its own thing away from others. The cut the boy receives is like the start of World War II. The boy tries to prevent amputation by the doctor. The USA tries to stay neutral in the war but the bombing of Pearl Harbor forced USA to join the war. The USA forcible joining the war was like the boy dying; it couldn’t be controlled and it was going to happen either way.

9. Devices in “Out, Out” Personification- The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard'. Metonymy- "as if to keep the life from spilling." Symbolism- There is the symbolic nature of the title 'Out, Out -', in that it is taken from the Shakespeare play Macbeth.

10. Themes  “Mending Walls” “Out, Out” The theme of this poem is that a respectful distance between neighbors is the recipe for good relationships between neighbors. Inevitability of death

11. Biography on Robert Frost Robert Lee Frost was born in San Francisco on March 26, 1874. His parents were William Frost and Isabelle Moody. His father was a journalist and his mother was a teacher. Robert grew up in Lawrence, Massachusetts. His father died when he was only 11. Frost became interesting in reading and writing poetry in high school. He attended Dartmouth college for only a few months. Throughout his life he had several jobs like working in mills, newspaper reporting, chicken farming and teaching. Robert sold his first poem “My Butterfly” in 1894. He then married Elinor Miriam White in 1895 and they had 6 children but 2 died young. The loss of his 2 children turned him more and more to poetry. By 1912 Frost had only published a few poems. In 1913 Frost published his first book of poems and in 1914 he published his second collection. From 1916-1938 Robert taught and lectured in colleges and continued to publish poems. Frost received the first four Pulitzer prizes. The U.S. senate honored him on his 75 and 85 birthdays. Frost recited “The Gift Outright” at the inauguration of John F. Kennedy. He died January 29, 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts.