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Background Information
The poem has been written by an American poet, Robert Frost, which was featured in his second major volume of poems, North of Boston. The poem does not possess any particular incident.
Theme
There is no uniformed and particular theme in the poem as it holds two major themes. The first one is the wall, serving as a boundary between two neighbours. But the wall slowly fells a victim to weathering (عمل فرسودگی). But the wall is essential to keep a sound connection between the neighbours as "Good fences make good neighbours". If the boundary, for some reason, vanishes, it is sure to violate the privacy of one's neighbours and one's own as well.
The second theme of the poem is to rebuild the wall, which is damaged through the force of Nature or through a rabbit who digs in Spring season. The second theme is more prominent than the previous one as the title and the whole poem revolves around (not directly but indirectly) repairing of the wall. As a wall plays a key role in establishing a good and neat relation between the neighbour.
Setting
The poem takes place in a farm, on which a wall is established to keep the farmer's farm safe and protected. But there are mysterious forces of Nature which play a key role in damaging the wall as thus:
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,And spills the upper boulders in the sun;And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
Rabbits playing in the Spring season are also responsible for the holes in the farmer's wall.
The narrator of the poem has to repair the gaps and holes which are not 'seen or heard them made'. His neighbour also takes part in the 'outdoor game' of mending the wall.
Images
The images used in this poem are quite simple and widely used in normal day-to-day conversations. The images belong to farms, walls, rabbit, yelping dogs and hills etc. are some notable images of this poem to describe the idyllic scenery of the farm.
Literary devices
This poem contains many literary devices and symbolism. 'The sun' in line three symbolizes the Summer season and 'frozen-ground-swell in line number two resembles the winter season. The wall has been implemented as a metaphor in the very composition. Be it the wall of language, emotions or actions, we do not want our neighbours in college, university, at home or in every professional field to create holes in our walls of hypocrisy. If, for some reason, our wall suddenly starts to decay, we labour ourselves to build the wall.
Tags:
American Literature
