I have heard nothing about Mending Wall, so here’s my impressions as a first time reader:
Mending Wall React Comment
I can’t quite parse “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”. It’s repeated twice, so it’s obviously important. I’m projecting my ambiguity to whether we should love the wall or not.
Later: oh, “Something there is” is equivalent to “There exists something”, practically, entropy; poetically, ???elves???
Classic ambiguous Frost on whether hunters actually destroy walls or not.
It’s obviously a commentary on “good fences make good neighbors”, the same way Dulce et Decorum Est is a commentary on the Latin phrase. This neighbor appears to be good (annual mutual wall maintenance, out-door game), but his insistence on the wall where it serves no purpose (his father’s saying, thus giving into tradition) gives the author the thought of his neighbor as an “old-stone savage armed”, upon contemplating whether the wall is to keep things in or out.
But these thoughts are “mischief” by the author, so are possibly a problem for the sake of a problem.
Also, I don’t think he tackles my interpretation of the phrase, which is about clear communication about boundaries. Frost focuses on the literal interpretation. Would apple trees outcompete pines, or vice versa? the neighbor’s insistence on a clear boundary could make sense.
Summary:
Walls are victims to entropy and must be maintained. Perhaps actively destroyed by hunters?
The mere existence of a wall can be sufficient to imagine the Other as a threat.
Please question Appeal to Tradition.
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Good imagery and Frost style, but I still find The Road Not Taken to be more clear and more succinct.
AFAIK it’s the origin of the saying that good fences make good neighbors. A saying the speaker pretty explicitly disagrees with, as a general principle. Yet it’s the saying society remembers.
I have heard nothing about Mending Wall, so here’s my impressions as a first time reader:
Mending Wall React Comment
I can’t quite parse “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”. It’s repeated twice, so it’s obviously important. I’m projecting my ambiguity to whether we should love the wall or not.
Later: oh, “Something there is” is equivalent to “There exists something”, practically, entropy; poetically, ???elves???
Classic ambiguous Frost on whether hunters actually destroy walls or not.
It’s obviously a commentary on “good fences make good neighbors”, the same way Dulce et Decorum Est is a commentary on the Latin phrase. This neighbor appears to be good (annual mutual wall maintenance, out-door game), but his insistence on the wall where it serves no purpose (his father’s saying, thus giving into tradition) gives the author the thought of his neighbor as an “old-stone savage armed”, upon contemplating whether the wall is to keep things in or out.
But these thoughts are “mischief” by the author, so are possibly a problem for the sake of a problem.
Also, I don’t think he tackles my interpretation of the phrase, which is about clear communication about boundaries. Frost focuses on the literal interpretation. Would apple trees outcompete pines, or vice versa? the neighbor’s insistence on a clear boundary could make sense.
Summary:
Walls are victims to entropy and must be maintained. Perhaps actively destroyed by hunters?
The mere existence of a wall can be sufficient to imagine the Other as a threat.
Please question Appeal to Tradition.
--
Good imagery and Frost style, but I still find The Road Not Taken to be more clear and more succinct.
AFAIK it’s the origin of the saying that good fences make good neighbors. A saying the speaker pretty explicitly disagrees with, as a general principle. Yet it’s the saying society remembers.