Mending Wall Quotations
Quotes
Explanation: The speaker begins the poem by saying that some natural force “doesn’t love a wall.” Here, nature is personified as having feelings against boundaries.“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,”
Explanation: This famous line, repeated twice, is a proverb spoken by the neighbor. It reflects traditional belief in maintaining boundaries for peace. Yet Frost uses it ironically, as the poet questions whether separation truly builds friendship or destroys it.“Good fences make good neighbours.”
Explanation: The speaker questions the purpose of building walls without understanding what or whom they separate. The “wall” symbolizes social, emotional, and psychological barriers. The irony lies in people blindly maintaining divisions.“Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,”
Explanation: The “darkness” here is not literal but symbolic. It represents the neighbor’s ignorance and blind attachment to old beliefs.“He moves in darkness as it seems to me,”