Skip to main content

What are some philosophical interpretations of the poem "Mending Wall"?

That is an interesting question to ask. In this context, I am interpreting "philosophical" to mean some timeless and universal meanings for Frost's "Mending Wall." The two that I take away after reading it are that we should tamper with nature only for some good purpose and that the structures created by humankind may interfere with relationships amongst people more than they aid them.


The first few lines of the poem tell us that nature does not like human-built barriers. The narrator says, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall" (line 1). That something is nature, which does its best to break up the wall with its cycles of freezing and warming. The narrator goes on to point out that, while there could be a purpose to building a wall, he clearly sees no such purpose in this situation.  Therefore, if we are going to build walls, or anything else, interfering with nature's natural course, we should do so only for a very good reason, to the benefit of someone or some ones. 


The narrator also sees that building can create a barrier and harm relationships:



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 offence (lines 32-35).



He understands that building a wall keeps people out as well as keeping something or someone in, and he sees that not having walls or other barriers might make for better neighbors than having walls. It is not too great a leap to infer from this that the narrator sees building upon the landscape as something potentially harmful to human relationships. If a structure is not enhancing our ability to get along with one another, perhaps it is a structure that should not be.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

etymology - Origin of the greeting "Sweet dreams".

Does anybody know the etymology of the phrase "sweet dreams"? I tried googling but did not find anything satisfying. Is this a relatively new phrase of the modern world or has this been in use for some time? I think it's the latter one. Answer The OED has the interjection as "a farewell to someone going to bed" from the 20th century: 1908 Sears Roebuck Catal. 198/1 Tenor Solos..Good Bye, Sweet Dreams, Good Bye. But it goes back until at least the 19th and possibly 18th centuries. John Wolcot, writing under the pseudonym of Peter Pindar, used it in his poem "Orson and Ellen; A Legendary Tale" published in 1801: Also from 1801 in The infernal Quixote (Page 287) by Charles Lucas: In the March 1776 of The Universal Magazine was published "The Serenade. A Pastoral Tale. From the German of Gesner" , where the shepherd Daphnis watches over his beloved as she sleeps and sings: The same tale appears in 1776's as Idyl XI, " Daphnis ...

Is there a word/phrase for "unperformant"?

As a software engineer, I need to sometimes describe a piece of code as something that lacks performance or was not written with performance in mind. Example: This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. Based on my Google searches, this isn't a real word. What is the correct way to describe this? EDIT My usage of "performance" here is in regard to speed and efficiency. For example, the better the performance of code the faster the application runs. My question and example target the negative definition, which is in reference to preventing inefficient coding practices. Answer This kind of coding style leads to unmaintainable and unperformant code. In my opinion, reads more easily as: This coding style leads to unmaintainable and poorly performing code. The key to well-written documentation and reports lies in ease of understanding. Adding poorly understood words such as performant decreases that ease. In addressing the use of such a poorly ...

What are the similarities between the relationships of the characters in The Outsiders and Romeo and Juliet?

At first glance, it might appear as if the characters in  The Outsiders  by S. E. Hinton and  Romeo and Juliet  by William Shakespeare do not have much in common; however, when one isolates the core of the conflicts, it becomes clear that the relationships in both stories are rooted in rivalry and secrecy.  In both  The Outsiders  and  Romeo and Juliet , an overarching theme is rivalry. While   socioeconomic status separates the greasers from the Socs in The Outsiders , last names separates the Montagues from the Capulets, who appear to be relatively equal in terms of socioeconomic status. Due to these rivalries, there are instances of deadly interactions in both stories. In  The Outsiders , Johnny kills Bob (whether his actions were justified or not is debatable). In  Romeo and Juliet , Romeo kills Tybalt and Paris, and Tybalt kills Mercutio. These deaths have profound effects on the main characters. In Ponyboy's case, the Johnny's death and other events in the novel inspire h...