Robert Frost’s Mending Wall and Roger Rosenblatt’s A Game of Catch
Humans have an uncanny ability to place themselves at a comfortable distance from each other and call it a “mutual understanding,” a “friendship,” or even “true love,” but it is all lies. The essence of man’s mystery is somewhat of a paradox. He yearns to become more familiar with those around him, yet he is unwilling to allow this to happen.
The power of "Mending Wall," one of Frost's most often quoted poems, rests upon an opposition. Its two famous lines contradict each other. The poem upholds that: Something there is that doesn't love a wall. But it also asserts that: Good fences make good neighbors.
The contradiction is reasonable, for two different types of people utter the conflicting remarks and both are right. Man cannot live without walls, boundaries, limits and especially self-limitations; yet he resents all fetters and is happy at the destruction of any barrier. In "Mending Wall" the boundary line is useless:
There where it is we do not need the wall.
And, to stress the point, the speaker facetiously adds:
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.
One may find far-reaching connotations in this poem. As well as that it states one of the greatest difficulties of our time: whether national walls should be made stronger for our safety, or whether they should be let down, since they impede our progress toward understanding and eventual common humanity.
"Mending Wall" can also be considered a symbolic poem. In the voices of the two men the younger, capricious, "modern" speaker and the old-fashioned farmer who replies with his one dogged sentence, his inherited aphorism. Some may hear the opposition of two forces: the zeal of revolt, which challenges tradition, and the spirit of restraint, which insists that customs must be upheld, built up and continually rebuilt, as a matter of principle.
The poet himself looks down upon such symbolic analysis. He denies that the poem says anything more than it seems to say. The dispute is the heart of the poem. It answers itself in the paradox of people, in neighbors and competitors, in the antagonistic nature of man.
Roger Rosenblatt’s essay, “A Game of
The persona in the poem reacts to the power the wall has and realizes that he must face his past and everything related to it, especially Vietnam.
This stood out to me because it is very true. If there is a wall then there are people that have to guard it. If the guards don't do their job then people can break through the wall. If there are no guards then people can just climb over it with ease. One of the connections that I had with this poem was the Great Wall of China. When I read this
Both authors explore the progressive attitudes and how these were received during the time period of both Fitzgerald and Robert. Frost presents this idea in the poem, ‘Mending Wall’. The poem is about two neighbours who every year go to the end of the garden to meet and build a wall together. However, one neighbour is confused as why there needs to be a wall as there is nothing that needs to be divided or prevented from escaping or entering. This neighbour begins to challenge the other neighbour, ‘why do they make good neighbours?’
...rward to attending this multi participle college, and if someone is looking to attend a college, they should go to this one because there is something for everyone.. Again it is not that expensive, and is ranked one of the best schools in the country. It also has a lot of clubs and sports you can be a part of. I hope you enjoyed my essay on the wonderful School LSU.
“Over each bunk there was nailed an apple box with the opening forward so that it made two shelves for personal belongings of the occupant of th...
This essay is anchored on the goal of looking closer and scrutinizing the said poem. It is divided into subheadings for the discussion of the analysis of each of the poem’s stanzas.
Partridge, Loren. The Art of Renaissance Rome 1400-1600. New York, NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1996.
Opponents argue that, prostitution has health effects and that is the reason as to why it remains illegal in most parts of the United States. Prostitution has social economic, physical, and a number of mental implications. The prostitutes and their clients are subject to a nu...
On the surface the poem seems to be a meditation on past events and actions, a contemplative reflection about what has gone on before. Research into the poem informs us that the poem is written with a sense of irony
The person in the poem wants to be left alone, like an island, or a rock. In the second stanza, he says "I've built a wall, a fortress deep and mighty." He has built a mental block to all outsiders, and he compares this to an inpenetrable wall. Inpenetrable walls keep unwanted things out: bad feelings, love, etc. Then, in the third line of this stanza, he says "I have no need of friendship - friendship causes pain, It's laughter and loving I disdain." He said that he doesn't want friendship because it just causes pain, and that the laughter and loving he hates or despises. He wants to be left alone, like...
The poem “Mending Wall” begins by the narrator telling is that there is a wall that is constantly being taken down by nature, and the narrator and his neighbor have to keep re-building it. But as the poem progresses, the narrator becomes unsure with himself, and begins to say that there is a wall “There where it is we do not need the wall” (23). He starts to question why a wall is there, knowing that he can never get across it to his neighbor. As the poem keeps progressing, he learns that the wall is there because of his neighbors tradition from his father, and he ends up saying “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall that wants it down (35), and he is talking about himself. In the progression of this poem, we see the narrator’s character change from someone who is persistent to someone who has hatred for what he is doing. He becomes more aware, having an epiphany, learning that there is truly no need for a wall, and it is only there because his neighbor is following his father’s tradition that requires him to keep the wall up. Through this characterization, we see that by only one side having hatred for the other, it can cause a division between them, because one person disagrees with the other. Through this poem, we see many character changes amongst the narrator, but one character that stays the same
For many centuries prostitution has been present in our world. Since ancient times, there have been people selling, buying and controlling the sex industry. Although this is one of the longest living businesses in history, it is still one of the most misunderstood by the public. Anti-prostitution campaigners try and bring in issues of morals and false facts to scare us out of legalizing something most people do on a daily basis. Luckily, there are plenty of facts that prove otherwise and the issue of morals affects no one but the people who are involved. So where is the issue? By legalizing prostitution, we are giving workers the rights they are born with and a safer environment to work in.
In order to understand the modernist movement and the influence in society we have to analysis Franz Kafka. Kafka modernist patterns and system were unique, disturbing, symbolic fictions in his works made him one of twentieth century's influential writers. Kafka use of troubling, ironic, expressionistic in his novels often dealing with alienation trapped his central character in complex situations beyond their knowledge and control. Kafka novel The Metamorphosis starts with Gregor waking up into bug. As the story change Gregor appears to accept that he is a bug. Gregor never stops to question how such a transformation could understand why it occurs. Although the story presents the change as fact, one might argue that it serves as a metaphor to illustrate why he was a bug. The Metamorphosis was not surprising when Kafka used metaphors to explain the story of Gregor, which were key to the understanding Gregor family reaction when he became a bug. The metaphor Kafka tried to convey was alienation of life in Gregor, which led to void humane gratitude, cold affection, and f...
In his poem 'Mending Wall', Robert Frost presents to us the ideas of barriers between people, communication, friendship and the sense of security people gain from barriers. His messages are conveyed using poetic techniques such as imagery, structure and humour, revealing a complex side of the poem as well as achieving an overall light-hearted effect. Robert Frost has cleverly intertwined both a literal and metaphoric meaning into the poem, using the mending of a tangible wall as a symbolic representation of the barriers that separate the neighbours in their friendship.
In the poem "Mending Wall," Robert Frost utilizes the literary devices of imagery, meter, and symbolism to demonstrate the rational and irrational boundaries or metaphoric "walls" humans place on their relationships with others. The precise images, such as the depiction of the mending-time ritual and the dynamic description of his "old-stone savage armed" neighbor, serve to enhance our enjoyment as well as our understanding of the poem (40). The poem is written in blank verse (iambic pentameter); the form that most closely resembles everyday English. Frost deliberately employs this direct, conversational, and easy to understand style of meter which appears simple on the surface. Although symbolism is used throughout, the three most significant symbols are: the wall, his neighbor, and Frost himself as the speaker. Analyzing each of these devices as well as how they harmonize with one another is necessary in order to appreciate what Frost was revealing about human behavior.