Crtical+Analysis

Salamone Critical Analysis April 12, 2012 Matt Smolenski The Mending Wall  In our lives we all have walls. Both physical and mental, but do we ever really need them? In Robert Frosts //“The Mending Wall”// he questions the need for a certain wall in his life. The wall in his yard has been broken by stones rolling off and by hunters. One day he and his neighbor are both fixing the wall, something they do each spring. They are both doing a lot of work until their fingers are ruff and Frost begins to ask why? When the narrator questions his neighbor, the neighbor replies “good fences make good neighbors”, but he does not understand why. His neighbor is going by traditional thinking. That is what he was always told and he continues to believe it so he continues to make the wall. He is not trying to keep anything in or out so he wonders why he has a fence at all.  In the beginning of the poem Frost says “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall that sends the frozen-ground swell under it” (Frost 1). Some force, nature, works to destroy the wall yearly. The ground swells and breaks apart the wall. After the wall is destroyed, Frost and his neighbor get together to fix it. When they are fixing the wall Frost describes the rocks “Some are loaves and some so nearly balls” (Frost 1). As they are fixing the wall Frost begins to question why they are doing this. Frost does not believe in just making walls. Frost and his neighbor are only keeping in a pine tree and an apple tree. To Frost this is a silly game in lines 21-26 he writes “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 all apple orchard. My apple trees will never get across and eat the cones of his pines, I tell him” (Frost 1). This just further explains that there is no need for the wall and Frost does not understand why they have it. Not everyone agrees with Frost though his neighbor just resorts to the old saying “Good fences make good neighbors” (Frost 1).  This poem is about old tradition versus new thinking Frost’s neighbor has had that wall for years and he wants to stay by the saying “Good fences make good neighbors”. Frost does not understand the need for the fence. Frost says “Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it where there are cows? But there are no cows here” (Frost 1). We don’t need to stick to the old traditions if there is no reason for the wall. It seems like there is a respect for the old tradition “He will not go behind his father’s saying, And he likes having thought of it so well He says it again, Good fences make good neighbors” (Frost 2). It seems like his neighbor does not want to disrespect his father’s old saying.  This poem is about a man saying that we don’t need walls in our lives. There truly is no need for them if we are not keeping in cows. Why should we stick to the old traditions? Even though it is an old tradition Frost is correct there is no need for fences if we don’t need the

Mrs. Salamone

Dave Lennard

English 9H

Critical Analysis

Critical Analysis – Once by the Pacific

By Robert Frost

Once by the Pacific was written by Robert Frost in 1928, and seems to predict some sort of a conflict or problem that will be large-scale and involve many different factions or people. The poem talks about the waves doing something to shore that had never before been done, and that a time of anger is coming that will last for a while. The poem says the land will be backed by its allies, the cliff and continent. I think the entire poem is a metaphor for something to come or something that has already happened. It seems to assume that what is going to happen will last a while and will not end well for most people. The whole mood of the poem gives a sense of anticipation, anxiousness, worrying, and seems like something is about to snap.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Frost says “Great waves looked over others coming in, and thought of doing something to the shore that water never did to land before”. This reinforces the idea that Frost was predicting something, or writing about a past event. This sounds like some country or power in the world could be about to go to war, or it could be a much smaller conflict, within a community, or a family. Frost could also be talking about the power of nature, and how little humanity can do to stop nature when it gets out of control. These all share a common theme of some group or force moving out of its usual boundaries to conflict with another group or force.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“Once by the Pacific” has only one stanza, and Frost uses an A A rhyming pattern.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">For example:

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">“The shattered water made a misty din.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Great waves looked over others coming in.”

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">This pattern repeats every two lines. The poem contains a single simile, “The clouds were low and hairy in the skies, like locks blown forward in the gleam of eyes.” It also uses personification to give the water “thoughts”.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> This poem is talking about how the consequences of a behavior or choice can come back at you and have a negative effect on you. Frost says, “It looked as if a night of dark intent Was coming, and not only a night, an age,” suggesting that all involved groups will be in for some sort of long, hard trial, possibly a war or a similar hardship. In the poem it says, “The shore was lucky in being backed by cliff, the cliff in being backed by continent,” suggesting that working together is the key to solve our problems, or may lose control of a situation that could have serious, long term, negative consequences.