Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Do the speaker's actions in the poem match his words? Why or why not?

In Robert Frost's poem, "The Mending Wall," the speaker questions the need for a wall to stand between his own property and his neighbor's property. In the poem, the narrator jokes about the stones in the walls, saying that to make them balance, they have to “use a spell,” and say, “Stay where you are until our backs are turned!” Later he wants to question the neighbor who says, “Fences make good neighbors.” The narrator wants to ask, “Why do they make good neighbors?” but he does not. At still another point he wants to say ‘Elves’ are doing the damage to the wall, but he does not say this either. His words within the poem are playful but he does not speak them to his neighbor. His actions are straightforward and serious; he repairs the wall just as his neighbor does. The contrast of the words he thinks and his actions show the difficulty he has communicating with his neighbor and probably other people as well. 

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