Thoughts on Mending Wall

One of the first things I noticed when studying this poem was the fact that the things that break the wall down are all natural occurrences.

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun.

Nature is competing with the walls existence and essentially tearing it down. By repairing the wall year after year, the narrator is acknowledging that they are fighting with nature, which he clearly sees as fruitless. This fits into the viewpoint that the neighbor is existing in denial of nature - in denial of man’s innate desire for community, in denial of the temporary nature of life on earth, and consequently even in denial of death itself.

In a more concrete sense, even earthly happenings fight the existence of the wall - hunters who have no time to pass slowly through the barriers erected by the neighbors and who tear them apart without a thought, leaving them to be mended in the Spring.

Whatever the cause, the wall is constantly being broken down and repaired, although it is not necessary. Nothing is being walled in or walled out. There aren’t grazing animals or quickly expanding crops.

Another thing that I found interesting looking over the poem was that although the neighbors (or at least one of them) seem intent on living in segregation, they come together to build the wall. The wall is theirs; Neither is absolute owner. This is why the pronoun ‘we’ is constantly used in the poem. It seems as if this idea of the communal wall contradicts the entire context of the poem. It creates that tension that makes a work worth its while.