Mending Wall

Rather than speaking straightforwardly, the speaker opens “Mending Wall” with a riddle: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall” (Line 1). The word order is convoluted and spell-like, more suited to a fairy tale character than a rural farmer. With this line, Frost provides insight into the speaker’s personality: he is imaginative and playful. He pays close attention to sunlight on the stones (Line 3) and even to the “frozen ground-swell” beneath, which he does not refer to directly by name (Line 2). Instead, Frost dances around directly saying the word the reader expects: frost, which is also the name of the poet himself. He draws attention to this detail by pretending to withhold it, perhaps encouraging the reader to align the poet with the unnamed speaker.

While “Mending Wall” presents a strong dichotomy between the speaker, who wants to tear down walls, and the neighbor, who wants to maintain them, it is the speaker who repairs the wall first. He builds it back up where the frost and hunters have damaged it during the winter (Lines 6-7). It is also the speaker, not the neighbor, who arranges their annual ritual of repair (Line 12).