Robert Frost

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“Good fences makes good neighbors,” is a small portion from the Mending Wall written by one of modern times most proficient writers, Robert Frost. Two of the critical articles I examined were quite helpful in gaining a better understanding of the “Mending Wall” and also of Robert Frost’s poetry. The Gale Research shows the best and most effective understanding of the “Mending Wall,” mainly because it deals specifically with that poem. It basically states that the poem is built around two attitudes, that of the speaker, which the Gale critic presumes is the poet, who is imaginative and an independent thinker and that of the neighbor, who prefers not to question anything (Gale). The other article deals more with other poetry that Robert Frost has written and helps explain common themes. One critic states that Frost’s poetry contains a theme of nature and mankind being one entity (Wagner 12).
According to the Gale Research article, the poet is describing the relationship between the two different men who have the same common interest in repairing the wall. It goes on explaining how they walk on each of their sides of the wall, picking up stones and replacing the oddly shaped and shattered ones. It shows the mental differences between the speaker and the neighbor by stating that the speaker, the more imaginary one, wanted to use a spell to fix the oddly shaped stones, while the more down to earth one wanted to use his hands and labor (Gale).
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