Exploring the Text

1. Is there a conflict in the poem? Explain.

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - Is there a conflict in the poem? Explain.
2. Read lines 12–15 carefully. How could the different meanings of the word “between,” which is repeated twice, change the meaning of the poem?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - Read lines 12–15 carefully. How could the different meanings of the word “between,” which is repeated twice, change the meaning of the poem?
3. Why do you think Robert Frost allows the neighbor to offer the proverb “Good fences make good neighbors” twice? Do you think the speaker agrees with this adage? Why do you think the neighbor gets the last word?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - Why do you think Robert Frost allows the neighbor to offer the proverb “Good fences make good neighbors” twice? Do you think the speaker agrees with this adage? Why do you think the neighbor gets the last word?
4. “Mending Wall” questions whether a wall that has no function in the modern world still fulfills a ritualistic need. When Frost was asked about the poem’s meaning, he said his poems are “all set to trip the reader head foremost into the boundless.” In what way does trying to answer the poem’s question trip you “into the boundless”? Which of the poem’s two characters trips “into the boundless”?

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - “Mending Wall” questions whether a wall that has no function in the modern world still fulfills a ritualistic need. When Frost was asked about the poem’s meaning, he said his poems are “all set to trip the reader head foremost into the boundless.” In what way does trying to answer the poem’s question trip you “into the boundless”? Which of the poem’s two characters trips “into the boundless”?
5. When President Kennedy visited the Berlin Wall, he quoted the first line of “Mending Wall.” His audience knew what he meant, of course. Later, when Frost visited Russia, he found that the Russian translation of the poem left off the first line. He said he could have done better for them by saying: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, / Something there is that does.” Does that potential change alter the meaning of the poem for you? Explain.

   Question

   ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=

   Exploring the Text: - When President Kennedy visited the Berlin Wall, he quoted the first line of “Mending Wall.” His audience knew what he meant, of course. Later, when Frost visited Russia, he found that the Russian translation of the poem left off the first line. He said he could have done better for them by saying: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, / Something there is that does.” Does that potential change alter the meaning of the poem for you? Explain.