Mending Wall

by Robert Frost · 1914 · 읽는 시간 2분 · 45행

간단히 보기

“Mending Wall” by Robert Frost is a poem about two neighbors repairing a stone wall and disagreeing about its purpose. The speaker begins with the mysterious force that loosens stones as frozen ground swells, leaving gaps wide enough for two people. Each spring, he calls his neighbor to rebuild the boundary. They balance rounded stones, joke about keeping them upright, and roughen their fingers with the work. The speaker questions why a wall should separate his apple orchard from the neighbor’s pines when neither keeps cows. His neighbor answers with an inherited saying about fences and friendship. By the end, the speaker imagines the man carrying stones like an ancient armed figure, while the neighbor repeats his father’s rule without examining it.

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 repairWhere 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 neighbour know beyond the hill;And on a day we meet to walk the lineAnd 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 ballsWe 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 out-door 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 acrossAnd eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.He only says, “Good fences make good neighbours.”Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonderIf I could put a notion in his head:“Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t itWhere there are cows? But here there are no cows.Before I built a wall I’d ask to knowWhat I was walling in or walling out,And to whom I was like to give offence.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 ratherHe said it for himself. I see him thereBringing a stone grasped firmly by the topIn 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 wellHe says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.”

한 행씩 의미 풀이

1~11행: The speaker describes a force that seems opposed to walls: swelling frozen ground topples stones and opens large gaps. Hunters also damage the wall while chasing rabbits for their dogs, but their work is separate from the unexplained openings discovered each spring. Giving nature an apparent dislike of walls introduces the poem’s central question about boundaries.

12~22행: The speaker arranges the annual repair with his neighbor. Each stays on his own side and replaces fallen stones, some shaped like bread loaves or balls. A joking command to the stones makes the difficult balancing seem playful. Yet their roughened fingers show real labor, and the comparison to a game suggests a ritual with rules.

23~34행: The speaker argues that their wall serves no practical purpose because apple trees and pines cannot cross the boundary like livestock. The neighbor replies with a familiar saying. Feeling mischievous in spring, the speaker considers challenging it. His questions shift the issue from property management to what boundaries exclude and whom they might offend.

35~45행: The speaker returns to the idea that something wants walls removed, but wants his neighbor to reach that thought independently. He imagines the stone-carrying man as an ancient armed figure and describes a darkness beyond literal shade. This is the speaker’s judgment of the neighbor’s unwillingness to question inherited wisdom. The repeated saying ends their exchange without agreement.

3개월 무료

200,000+권의 고전. 모든 형식을 무료로 시작해요.

전자책과 15분 요약, 그리고 원가로 인쇄하는 모든 책. 큰 글자판도 제공해요.

무료로 시작하기매년 갱신 · 언제든 해지 가능

생각해 볼 질문 세 가지

How does the speaker’s participation in repairing the wall complicate his arguments against keeping it?
What do the images of playful stone balancing and an armed ancient figure suggest about the neighbors’ relationship?
How does the neighbor’s repeated saying change in meaning between its first appearance and the poem’s ending?

3개월 무료

200,000+권의 고전. 모든 형식을 무료로 시작해요.

전자책과 15분 요약, 그리고 원가로 인쇄하는 모든 책. 큰 글자판도 제공해요.

무료로 시작하기매년 갱신 · 언제든 해지 가능

다음 시A Visit from St. NicholasClement Clarke Moore · 읽는 시간 2분