“Frost himself realized that such neighbors on nearby farms were increasing in number” (Averev, 1976, p. With the economic development, however, people alienate one from another by installing walls in between. Furthermore, a seemingly apparent evolvement of human beings turns out to be the lack of communication. The image is also a hint of convention, which has been lasting ever since the primitive age and has an irresistible dominance on people. The neighbor likened to the old-stone savage, is considered backward and uncivilized. The shift in voice, a slowing down and steadying of rhythm, the contemplativeness previously absent, does not simply mime the slow actions of the neighbor. I see him there Bring a stone grasped firmly by the top In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed. The neighbor’s mind is also exemplified in his behavior. To some degree, he is the representative of convention. Without pondering on whether or not there is the necessity to build a wall, he sticks to dogged rules of convention and refuses to any kind of change. He asserts it with such a blind determination towards the existence of the wall in between that an invisible wall has been installed between them.
#SCANSION MENDING WALL FULL#
His response is short, full of coldness and obstinacy. When “I try to put a notion in his head,” his mere utterance is the proverb.
Residing in the convention-dominated world, he regards the proverb as an unquestionable universal truth. The neighbor’s repetition of “Good fences make good neighbors” manifests that he is a convention upholder. Without meditating on its rationality of existence, people observe it as a strict rule. “The spring mending time” each year is a regular activity of farmers in New England, revealing the powerful predominance of tradition on people’s mind.
71 Interpretation of Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” families has become a tradition, inherited from ancestors. The wall standing between the lands of two ZHAO Xin-li (1980- ), female, B.A., teaching assistant of School of Foreign Languages, Langfang Teachers College research field: British and American literature. It is out of instinct that the speaker acknowledges the neighbor to repair the wall together. To the speaker, erecting a wall is a conventional concept, deeply ingrained in the mind. As soon as “I” find the toppling wall, “I let the neighbor know beyond the hill” and prepare to mend the wall. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it, And spill the upper boulder in the sun, That makes gaps even two can pass abreast. The Wall as the Symbol of Convention The poem starts with the crumbling down of the wall. As it explores in “Mending Wall” that the wall-the symbol of convention-sometimes is set as a barrier in human communication. You “begin in delight, end in wisdom.” As we may mend a stone wall, pick up apples, watch a spider, and mow the lawn in his poems, we also acquire enlightenment and inspiration towards life. “It would be a mistake to imagine that Frost is easy to understand because he is easy to read” (Elliott, 1988, p. Such is a scene typical in Robert Frost’s poems, which always take on an easy-understood appearance and is imbued with profound significance. In “Mending Wall,” Robert Frost depicts a commonplace occurrence that a wall separating a farmer’s land from that of his neighbor’s has crumbled down and awaits repairs. However, the ulterior meaning, which is the value of his poetry, worths our life time of contemplation. It is rather easy for readers to catch the surface meaning of his poetry. In his poetry, one image after another is unfolded gradually. He classified himself as a poet who was a synecdochist and stated that he preferred synecdoche in poetry-that figure of speech we use a part for the whole. One aspect of Frost’s theory is “his understanding of symbolism and how it functions in a poem” (Parini, 1993, p. Introduction Robert Frost is adept at applying symbolism and images in his poetry. Key words: symbol image “Mending Wall” convention 1. By exploring the symbol and images applied in “Mending Wall”, it draws the conclusion that “the wall”, symbolizing convention, is set as a barrier in human communication. “Mending Wall”, one of Frost’s well-known poems, had been analyzed in different approaches, such as psychoanalytical approach, social approach and structural approaches, etc. Jun 2007, Volume 4, No.6 (Serial No.42) Sino-US English Teaching, ISSN1539-8072, USA Interpretation of Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” ZHAO Xin-li (School of Foreign Languages, Langfang Teachers College, Langfang 065000, China) Abstract: Robert Frost is skillful at adopting symbolism and images in his poems.
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