Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Robert Frost, “Mending Wall" analysis
Robert Frost, “Mending Wall" analysis
Robert Frost, “Mending Wall" analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Robert Frost, “Mending Wall" analysis
An Analysis of Mending Wall
Robert Frost once said that "Mending Wall" was a poem that was spoiled by being applied. What did he mean by "applied"? Any poem is damaged by being misunderstood, but that's the risk all poems run. What Frost objects to, I think, is a reduction and distortion of the poem through practical use. When President John F. Kennedy inspected the Berlin Wall he quoted the poem's first line: "Something there is that doesn't love a wall." His audience knew what he meant and how the quotation applied. And on the other side of that particular wall, we can find another example of how the poem has been used. Returning from a visit to Russia late in his life, Frost said, "The Russians reprinted 'Mending Wall' over there, and left that first line off." He added wryly, "I don't see how they got the poem started." What the Russians needed, and so took, was the poem's other detachable statement: "Good fences make good neighbors." They applied what they wanted. "I could've done better for them, probably," Frost said, "for the generality, by saying:
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
Something there is that does.
"Why didn't I say that?" Frost asked rhetorically. "I didn't mean that. I meant to leave that until later in the poem. I left it there."
"Mending Wall" famously contains these two apparently conflicting statements. One begins the poem, the other ends it, and both are repeated twice. Which are we supposed to believe? What does Frost mean? "The secret of what it means I keep," he said. Of course he was being cagey, but not without reason.
At a reading given at the Library of Congress in 1962 Frost told this anecdote:
In England, two or three years ago, Graham Greene said to me...
... middle of paper ...
...ating a similar moment each time it is encountered.
Works Cited and Consulted
Barry, Elaine. Robert Frost. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co. 1973.
Robert Frost. “Mending Wall.” Making Literature Matter: An Anthology for Readers and Writers. Ed. John Schilb and John Clifford. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000. p106-107.
Gerber, Philip L. Robert Frost. Ed. Kenneth Eble. Boston: Twayne Publishers. 1982. 124-125
Lentricchia, Frank. Robert Frost: Modern Poetics and the Landscape of Self. Durham: Duke University Press. 1975. 103-107.
Zverev, A. A Lover's Quarrel with the World: Robert Frost. 20th Century American Literature: A Soviet View. Translated by Ronald Vroon. Progress Publishers. 1976. 241-260. Rpt. in World Literature Criticism. Vol. 2. Ed. James P. Draper. Detroit: Gale Research Inc. 1992. 1298-1299.
The Edict of Milan was proclaimed by the Roman Emperor Constantine after he defeated the Emperor Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. After Constantine’s victory over Maxentius, the Roman senate celebrated by creating an arch at the base of the Palatine, known as the Arch of Constantine. It marvels with the old construction structures of free-standing columns, consisting of the carved reliefs of victories, trophies, and a triple gateway. The Arch of Constantine has circular reliefs representing the sun and moon on the east and west ends. On the keystones of the arches, there were carvings of the river and other gods. A very significant and astonishing aspect of this arch is the historical pattern, called the frieze, that was carved on the sides of the arch representing the ethic and style of architecture of that time period.
Zverev, A. "A Lover's Quarrel with the World: Robert Frost." 20th Century American Literature: A Soviet View. Translated by Ronald Vroon. Progress Publishers. 1976. 241-260. Rpt. in World Literature Criticism. Vol. 2. Ed. James P. Draper. Detroit: Gale Research Inc. 1992. 1298-1299.
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken.” Literature and the Writing Process. Ed. Elizabeth McMahan et al. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2007. 695-696. Print.
Though most works of art have some underlying, deeper meaning attached to them, our first impression of their significance comes through our initial visual interpretation. When we first view a painting or a statue or other piece of art, we notice first the visual details – its size, its medium, its color, and its condition, for example – before we begin to ponder its greater significance. Indeed, these visual clues are just as important as any other interpretation or meaning of a work, for they allow us to understand just what that deeper meaning is. The expression on a statue’s face tells us the emotion and message that the artist is trying to convey. Its color, too, can provide clues: darker or lighter colors can play a role in how we judge a piece of art. The type of lines used in a piece can send different messages. A sculpture, for example, may have been carved with hard, rough lines or it may have been carved with smoother, more flowing lines that portray a kind of gentleness.
Philip, Lotte Brand. The Ghent Altarpiece and the Art of Jan Van Eyck. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1971. Print.
Frieda Kahlo was born Magdalena Carmen Frieda Kahlo y Calderon in Coyoacan, Mexico, July 6th, 1907. She did not in the first place plan to become a creator; she entered a pre-Master of Education system in Mexico City. She endured more than large integer dealing in her brio time and during her convalescence she began to discomfit. Her beaux-arts, mostly self-portraits and still life, filled with the colors and forms of Mexican folk art. Frieda created some 200 spacing’s, artistic production and sketches germane to her education in life, physical and aroused pain and her churning relationship with her ex husband Diego. She produced 143 beaux arts, lv of which are self-portraits. At the time of her exhibition first step, Frieda’s health was such that her Doctor told her that she was not to leave her patch. She insisted that she was going to wait on her opening, and, in Frieda style, she did. She arrived in an ambulance and her bed in the backward of a transport. She was placed in her bed and four men carried her in to the waiting guests.
Frost is far more than the simple agrarian writer some claim him to be. He is deceptively simple at first glance, writing poetry that is easy to understand on an immediate, superficial level. Closer examination of his texts, however, reveal his thoughts on deeply troubling psychological states of living in a modern world. As bombs exploded and bodies piled up in the World Wars, people were forced to consider not only death, but the aspects of human nature that could allow such atrocities to occur. By using natural themes and images to present modernist concerns, Frost creates poetry that both soothes his readers and asks them to consider the true nature of the world and themselves.
In 1939, Rankin once again ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, winning based on her anti-war position. She voted against entry into war, although Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, being the only protesting vote. After the end of th...
To start off this essay, it is important to note what is meant when using oppression in the terms and context of a sociologist. Oppression causes certain groups of people to be or advantaged in a political system whereas other groups of people are considered to be subordinate (Glasberg, pg. 1) One of the major groups that has been oppressed Universally are women (there are exceptions, but not many). Women have typically had not had the rights, privileges, or participation as it relates to political
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” Robert Frost is one of the worlds most renowned and beloved American poets whose work was enthused through the use of American colloquial speech, he wrote poems about rural life that captivated everyone’s mind. Frost was born in San Francisco on the 26th of March 1874, at the tender age of eleven after his father’s death the family moved to New England. Some of his most important poems include: “The Road Not Taken”, “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening”, and “Fire and Ice” are examples of ways Frost utilized nature to depict that he was indeed a contemplative human being. Frost employs the theme nature to determine his
Pritchard, William H. Frost: A Literary Life Reconsidered. Amherst: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1985. 43.
Frost, Robert. “The Road Not Taken.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. 7th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 689. Print.
The health status of the African American has been declining over the last century. Studies have shown that African Americans have less access to appropriate health care and that includes preventative care for children and adults. African Americans are not only more susceptible to disease and illness; they are also more likely to die from them. This minority tends to have the worst indicators of all health minorities. So has life expectancy improved for African Americans? Yes, it has improved. “The life expectancy has improved greatly for all Americans during the last century.” (Black Demographics,’n.d.’) This paper will compare the health status of the African American and the barriers that
Van Egmond, Peter. The Critical Reception of Robert Frost. Boston: G.K. Hall and Co., 1974.
"Mending Wall" is a poem written by the poet Robert Frost. The poem describes two neighbors who repair a fence between their estates. It is, however, obvious that this situation is a metaphor for the relationship between two people. The wall is the manifestation of the emotional barricade that separates them. In this situation the "I" voice wants to tear down this barricade while his "neighbor" wants to keep it.