Physical Barrier Of The Wall example essay topic

Poem Analysis Essay One Mending Wall by Robert Frost is, on the surface level a poem about two farmers fixing a broken wall during spring, a wall that annually suffers from the hands of the seasons and of the hunters. The two men, who are neighbours walk along the line of the wall, at the same time every year, picking up the stones that have scattered along their property and balancing them back up on the wall. The central activity of the poem. However, the poem can also be seen to be about the physical barrier of the wall becoming a kind of communication barrier as both the men do the work in complete silence even though they are both doing it together.

The poet's purpose in writing the poem is to show how physical barriers can stretch into barriers blocking communication and personal relationships. This poem is written in blank verse and is written in a solid block with no breaks making it seem more prosaic than poetic, in form. Some lines of the poem have a very harsh consonant sound with single syllable words and when read aloud sound very slow and plodding. The poem follows the path of the men fixing the wall, which is hard and laborious work, "We wear our fingers rough with handling them". The poem finishes with a quote, which one of the farmers repeats throughout the poem whenever questioned by the other what the point of having a wall is if neither are animal farmers, "Good fences make good neighbours". The poet uses many different word techniques including repetition and metaphor in order to create interesting images and impressions on the reader.

"And on a day we meet to walk the line and set the wall between us once again". This technique is an example of Frost using harsh consonants and monosyllabic words in order to create a slow rhythm showing that the words are very literal. Another technique that Frost uses more than once is repetition. "The wall between us", is a line that is repeated to show that the wall is not only physical and it really does extend to the men's relationship with each other. This contrasts immediately with, "And some are loaves and some so nearly balls". Which is a metaphor that Frost uses in the poem when he is comparing the stones to these objects.

In the poem this line comes after several very prosaic lines and so is a contrast in that it shows Frost's imagination. Overall this poem is very effective in delivering it's message of how physical barriers can become more than just that. Even though this should not be a reason not to have a relationship with someone to some it might be not only a physical or aesthetical barrier but again also mental.