The speaker does not love a wall, and would rather see the wall come down. (12) Ironically, the speaker suggests that his only interaction with this particular neighbor occurs in the springtime when they are both engaged in mending their wall. The speaker and the neighbour get together each spring to mend the wall, at the instigation of the speaker. In this essay, I will discuss three different ways in which WALL as a metaphor is significant, to show that different shades of metaphorical meaning make this apparently straight-forward poem rich with complexity.įirst, WALL can be understood as a barrier to social interaction, connection, and friendship (the theme of barrier to social connection). (5) In “Mending Wall”, WALL as one kind of (concrete) thing invites readers to examine the way they view other kinds of things (more abstract concepts). As suggested by Lakoff and Johnson, “ he essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another”. To be more precise, WALL serves as a relatively concrete concept that encourages thinking about more abstract concepts readers might associate with a wall. The Wall in the speaker’s story is a real physical wall, but I believe the theme of the poem is about WALL as a metaphor for something more abstract and ‘larger’ than a physical wall. I suggest the wide appeal of Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” (read the poem here) is, in the main, attributable to the different meanings carried by WALL as a metaphor. ‘Wall’ as Metaphor in Robert Frost’s Mending Wall
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