Mending Wall By: Robert Frost

1. Mending Wall By: Robert Frost Albert Guicho Aldo Lopez Josiah Balcruz Samantha Martinez Quang Pham

2. Famous American Poet • Born: March 26, 1874in San Francisco, CA • Died: January 29, 1963, in Boston, MA • Gained interest in reading/ writing poetry when he entered High School. First poem was published in his high school’s magazine. • Attended Dartmouth University & Harvard University. Left college to support his family. • Mainly worked as newspaper deliverer & factory worker. Wasn’t content with these jobs so he became a poet. • Started off his career as a poet when he sold his first poem “My Butterfly: An Elegy” to New York Independent for $15 • Felt happy about selling his first poem that he proposed to Elinor William White. Said no first time because she wanted to focus on college. After she graduated she accepted his second proposal. • Frost and his family lived & worked at a farm purchased by his grandfather. While working at farm he was diligent with his career as a poet. He wrote poems whenever he had the time to. Author’s Bio

3. The farm was not prospering the way it was envisioned. Frost decided to return as an English teacher and teach at Pinkerton Academy and New Hampshire Normal School. • 1912, Frost moved to UK. While there he wrote, “A Boy’s New Will” and “North of Boston”. Two of his famous poetry books. • Popularity rose because he met Ezra Pound. Pound was the first person to review Frost’s work at a higher level. She gave him a favorable review. • Frost soon approached by publishers everywhere. Henry Holt (Publisher) published Frost’s “Mountain Interval.” • All publishers that turned down Frost in the past were now calling him. Frost replied those calls by sending the poems that were turned down by them. • Frost taught classes at Dartmouth, University of Michigan, Amherst College, and Middlebury College. Amherst named their library after him. • Won over 40 honorary awards. Among those are four Pulitzer Prizes. • Recited “The Gift Outright” at John F. Kennedy’s Inauguration. • Past away due to complications after prostate surgery • Working as a poultry farmer inspired Frost to write Mending Wall (1912) • When John F. Kennedy inspected the Berlin Wall, he quoted the first line of Mending Wall

5. Blank verse (unrhymed lines of iambic pentameter) • 45 lined single stanza • Repetition in lines 14 and 15, 1 and 35, 27 and 45 -wall between us -something there is that doesn’t love a wall -good fences make good neighbors • Follows iambic pentameter loosely • Shows tension as well as a mocking (playful) or sarcastic tone • Assonance: (repetition of vowels) Ex: “And make gaps even two can pass abreast” • Theme: The poem is about how people and animals build walls to protect something, to have space, or shut of all communication with others. It is a mental struggle to either keep the wall up or break it down. Structure

6. Cesuras found in six areas (pause in meter or rhythm of a line) Ex: lines 9, 22, 30 etc. • Enjambment (run on sentence) also found in various areas. Ex: lines 2-3, 6-7, ect. • Catalexis (extra unaccented syllable at the end of a line after a meter ends) -Iambic then iambic ending with catalexis -Ex: lines 1-7 (iamb. Pent.) then line 9 (iamb w/ catalexis) • One End rhyme: lines 41 and 42 • There is no rhyme scheme

8. ANALYSIS

9. (line 1) In the poem, the speaker begins with addressing the wall. He starts the poem saying that there is somethingthat doesn’t want the wall to exist. • (lines 2-4) When water freezes it expands, and when it melts, it shrinks. Because of this process the boulders debilitate and leave gaps in the wall that even two can pass walking side-by-side. • (lines 5, 8-9) The author then gives an example of hunters and their dogs. Hunters tear down the wall so much to get their prey. While they do this their dogs be yipping until the hunters get the hare. • (lines 6-7) After the hunters have broken through the wall, the speaker then goes and repairs it. • It then transitions onto the next point. “The gaps I mean,” Lines 1-9

11. (line10) The speaker does not know when the wall was made • (line 11) Spring mending-time refers to a new born (according to the sun chart), speaker fixes wall in spring (rebirth/ rebuild) • (lines 12-15) Apparently the speaker has a neighbor that lives over the hill, and they meet up one day to fix the wall • “wall between us” repetition emphasizing the wall • irony on “wall” because it separates and brings together speaker and neighbor • (line 16) The wall is in bad shape, the boulders from the wall fell off. • The speaker and his neighbor pick up boulders and rebuild the wall and makes sure to stay on their own sides. • (line 17) It is a difficult task because the boulders are all in different sizes, some are big like loaves and some are small like balls. • (line 18) They have to use a “spell” to have the boulders stay still so the wall won’t fall. Lines 10-18

13. (line 19) Magic spell to make the rocks stay still. • (line 20) The speaker and neighbor’s fingers are rough because they are handling rocks. • (lines 21-22) The speaker begins to see the wall as a part of a game. Ex: Pretending to be a builder with someone (like legos). Literal: the speaker is being playful with his neighbor. Nevertheless, It hardly comes to anything more than just a game to the speaker. • (lines 23-24) The speaker finally sees that the wall is not needed. His neighbor owns pine trees and the speaker owns apple trees. • (lines 25-26) His apple trees will not grow to a point where it will interfere with the pine trees. (shouldn’t be a wall if there’s nothing to protect) • (Line 25) The speaker personifies the apple trees • (line 27) The neighbor only replies with “Good fences make good neighbors.” The neighbor wants fences to feel secure within his own space. Lines 19-27

15. (line 28) Spring makes the speaker mischievous (baby learning to crawl and messes with everything) (Sun chart) • (lines 28-29) Wonders if he can change the neighbor’s mind about having a wall • (lines 30-31) Questions why fences make good neighbors since no cows are there to wall in • (lines 32-33) Wants to know why he would build a wall (keep in, keep out, protect) • (line 34) Wonders if the wall would offend anybody • Pun in “offense” “a fence” (hehe) • (lines 35 & beg. 36) Refers back to 1st line (repetition) animal/ humans out there in the world that don’t want/ love walls. Instead they want the wall down. • (end of line 36) Excuse is that an elf is breaking the wall down, not him (fantasy/ playful/ sarcastic) Lines 28-36

17. (line 37-38)According to the speaker, he wants the neighbor to realize that there is something in existence that doesn’t want the wall standing. • (end of line 38-40) The neighbor ignores the speaker and continues rebuilding the wall, looking like an ogre in his brusque, ignorant attitude (holding a stone in each hand) (also refers to Paleolithic era with cavemen) • (lines 41-42) Alludes to the book Inferno, written by Dante Alighieri around the year 1314. The woods in the aforementioned line are on the edge of hell. This signifies that the neighbor is on the verge of insanity. • (lines 43-45) The neighbor's saying (“good fences make good neighbors”) actually isn’t his but his father’s tradition, and he wants to keep tradition of the wall. • (lines 43-45) The neighbor does not want to relinquish his family’s tradition passed down by his ancestors. This stubbornness of the neighbor makes him adamant in his belief that “good fences make good neighbors.” (repetition) (neighbor do hell bent on the wall) Lines 37-45

19. Please write the questions on a separate sheet of paper. Then, write your answer (Just a letter would be fine). • End rhymes show up how may times in this poem? A.) once B.) twice C.) thrice D.) None of the above Quiz Time!!!

20. 2. “Spring-mending time” can be referred back to what? A.) Rabbits being hunted B.) Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious C.) The Sun chart D.) The Moon chart 3. What is the rhyme scheme of this poem? A.) Shakespearean sonnet B.) There is no rhyme scheme C.)Blank verse D.) Both B and C 4. “I see him there Bringing a stone grasped firmly on the top In each hand, like an old stone savage armed.” What fantasy creature do these lines in the poem describe? A.) Elf B.) Ogre C.) Dragon D.) Zelda

21. 5. “There where it is we do not need the wall: He is all pine and I am apple orchard.” What does the speaker mean by this? A.) The speaker steals his neighbor’s pine trees. B.) The speaker believes there shouldn’t be a wall if there’s really nothing to protect. C.) The speaker believes the wall is necessary in order to protect their trees (haha trees. Get it? Marijuana.) D.) The speaker hates apples 6. What meter is this poem in? A.) Loosely follows iambic tetrameter B.) Iambic Pentameter C.) loosely follows Iambic pentameter with some catalexis meters D.) Both A and C

22. 7. Where and when was Robert Lee Frost born? A.) Reseda. September 17, 1893 B.) San Francisco. March 26, 1874 C.) San Francisco. March 26, 1873 D.) San Jose. August 29, 1873 8. When Frost started his career as a poet, what was the first poem that he sold? A.) “Mending Wall” B.) “Road Not Taken” C.) “An Old Man’s Winter Night” D.) “My Butterfly: An Elegy”

23. 9. “Before I built a wall I’d ask to know what I was walling in or walling out” What does the speaker feel about building a wall? A.) The speaker wants to know why he or she would build a wall in the first place (what he wanted to keep out or in) B.) The speaker wants to know the difference between walling something in or out. C.) The speaker believes that he or she wants a wall to keep the peace between him and his neighbor. D.) Screw the wall! I Have Cupcakes!!! Open Ended Question 10. What is the meaning of these two lines(answer must be no less than two sentences): “That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it And spills the upper boulders in the sun.”

24. A • C • B • B • B • C • B • D • A Answers!!!!!!!!