Mending Wall Thesis Statement

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Robert Frost: “Mending Wall.”
Nature, as a creation, has no walls and social constructions which subject humanity to divisions based on its self-made insecurities. The poem, Mending Wall, by Robert Frost invites the audience to the speaker’s dilemma where he struggles to understand, and even questions, the essence of repairing the existing wall though he cannot stop taking part in maintaining it himself. Albeit irrational to him, the narrator challenges the current status quo but being a part of the problem himself, he has no option but conforming to the social norms.
As the title suggests, the poem is about two neighbors who meet every spring season of the year to make repairs on the damages of the wall separating them. The narrator takes the neighborly initiative of calling out the neighbor when the time comes for the joint task force to get to the annual routine (Line 12). Mutual respect and responsibility exist between the two. However, the narrator airs his reservations about the routine activity and questions the validity of wall’s existence. Walls are for livestock he purports, and unnecessary for apples and pine trees owners (Line 24). He is keen to observe factors influencing and supporting his opposition of maintaining the wall between the two households. The speaker points to the natural aspects and forces of nature that continually seek to bring down the wall only for the two to jointly make the necessary amends (Line 2). The other partner in the annual joint repair venture seems content with the tradition and providing no rational reason other than, “Good fences make good neighbors” enjoys making the repairs and looks forward to the next time (Line 27). Seeing the speck in his neighbor’s eye, the speaker cunningly attacks his archaic beliefs to convince him out of adhering to the old traditions to no avail (Line 29). The narrator fails to remove both the plank in his eye, as he is also part of the system erecting and maintaining walls, and the speck in his neighbor who adamantly holds on to his traditional belief, “Good fences make good neighbors,” (Line 45).
Robert Frost poem, Mending Wall, is a first-person narration of a forty-five line blank verse. Thus it has no stanzas but utilizes a five feet per line iambic pentameter in the narrative (Meyer Michael, 2016). The poem also lacks end-rhymes, and the fact that it has no stanza breaks denies the reader a lyrical twist that some may enjoy. However, the lack of rhyming patterns ensures that each line has its sound. The poet also employs internal rhyme and assonance on various occasions. In lines 1, 12, 17, and 23, for instance, the use of the words, wall, hill, balls, wall, indicate the use of assonance in the poem which creates a lasting memory in the reader as it captures their attention. Frost’s choice of words is simple and easy to understand making it e...