By David Yusem, SEEDS Community Mediation and Restorative Justice Programs Manager
Mending Wall by Robert Frost
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.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn't it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'
Frost’s poem is often referred to by the neighbor’s constant refrain of “Good fences make good neighbors”. In fact, in mediation, I have heard it mentioned more than once. Fence disputes are a common type of mediation request. Most people read “Mending Wall” as a tribute to fences; each person minding his/her own business and property, clearly delineating what is and is not theirs. Fences separate people and property into nice, easy to identify packages that fit our western sense of tidiness and order. Remember the suburban dream of the white picket fence? What was it the Huck Finn painted? Our collective American subconscious is imbued with the idea of the fence as being part of the American dream.
In the first two stanzas of the poem, Frost writes about how time and weather can slowly destroy a stone wall. He also talks about Hunter’s moving rocks to easier catch rabbits. Every Spring Frost and his neighbor meet to mend the wall. Each man on his own side of the wall, they walk along together carefully replacing the stones. Frost wonders to himself why they need a wall at all. There is nothing to keep in or out.
“He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.”
His neighbor’s only response is “Good fences make good neighbors”.
But Frost wants to know why.
“Isn't it where there are cows? But here there are no cows”.
Further along in the seventh stanza Frost wonders who he keeping out or in with this wall and will they take offense.
On first reading, some may see the neighbor’s repetition of his father’s old saying as an affirmation that it is good for each person to clearly know what is theirs and what is their neighbor’s, and that the separation created by the wall is good. I choose to read the poem differently. I see “Mending Wall” as a meditation on building community through strengthening relationships. I can’t help but think that Frost’s intent was to show the two men working together side by side to create something. Doing this work together bonds them in a way that only shared hard work can do. They do not need to speak or carry on a conversation. The two men spend a Spring day together creating something beautiful wearing their fingers rough. This is a dry rock wall not a chain link fence. These walls have sculptural quality to them. It is almost as if they are collaborating on an ongoing art project. Their shared sense of accomplishment will carry over into other aspects of their relationship. Like the wall, if the basis of their relationship is strong then when a few stones come loose they can work together to fix it. One can imagine that having repaired this wall together every year, they will be better able to weather conflicts that may arise in the future. Good fences make good neighbors indeed.
