The Mending Wall TP CASTT

Title:  It seems to portray that through building the wall, something was fixed. And with the building of the wall “things are left in and things are left out”. Paraphrase: The two neighbors are trying to determine whose land is whose by drawing boundaries together and building a wall by using the natural setting (ie: forests and apple orchard). There is a feeling of uncertainty because neither of the characters know what they will be “walling in or walling out”. Connotation: The imagery that is used is a comparison that “good fences make good neighbours”. That if the boundaries of one’s territory is determined without offending his neighbor’s, then it is a positive addition. The use of seasons is very apparent. He uses winter as a destructive opponent who ruins objects and things. He uses spring as a “mending time” when people get together and repair all that had been destroyed. It’s a continuous cycle of death and rebirth.  The author has a rhythm in his writing. Every line contains 10 syllables in each line of the poem.  The line “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall…” is said the first line of poem and then later restated towards the end of the poem. The purpose of this was to emphasize the fact that a wall is an object that enforces peace and property. Attitude: The attitude and tone that the speaker takes in this poem is one of  being rational. The speaker wants only to be fair and to determine where the boundaries of his property should be. The attitude taken by the author is one of  apprehensiveness. The author gets the point across that the wall isn’t wanted by everyone but that it needs to be there for reasons that the characters believe. Shifts: The author starts out with a sense of no desire for the wall. He believes that since the seasons keep trying to crush and get rid of the wall then it must be a sign to get rid of the wall. He then makes a shift to the concept that the wall must be built to preserve the coexistence with his neighbor, which is basically a shift into a feeling of compromise. But throughout the entire poem, the sense of missing out on something is apparent. The speaker feels apprehensive towards building the wall because he knows that the boundaries are so blurry and that he might be missing out on something if the lines are drawn right. Title:  The title now has this meaning that through the seasons and through powers that man cannot control, the things that are developed and built by man aren’t really suppose to be there. Therefore through the wall being broken and having to be built again, the speaker is able to see what nature has to offer and that not everything that man builds and creates is suppose to be there. Theme: The theme of the poem is that not everything built by man is suppose to be there and remain there. And that nature has its ways of trying to make people aware of what it has to offer.