Mending Wall (Robert Frost)

This poem by Robert Frost is another friend's favorite. Thanks Michael W. for reintroducing me to this great one.

It's a quiet, solid poem - the diction and even the lack of line breaks reflect that. The lack of line breaks also serves to make the poem a long line, a wall (if you will) between reader and poet. And just as it's so for the neighbors, perhaps the distance that text puts between you and the poet is best. Boundaries are good. They allow interaction (reading/thinking about the poem & chatting with your neighbor), but also allow for defined distance (there is little doubt of who is the reader vs writer & each man's plot of land is clearly demarcated).

 
Okay, so that's really just a half-thought out idea, but that's why this poem is so great. In all my previous readings, I'd never made that connection about reader/writer/and the boundaries between them. This poem is easy to read and understand and yet so dense. It contains so much wisdom.

Good find, Michael.

Favorite line: "Spring is the mischief in me"

Spring is the mischief in me,