“Mending Wall” by Robert Frost
MS / ELA
Boundaries, Communication, Literary Devices, Natural v.
Man-Made, Segregation
First, have students read this partial definition of metaphor:
A thing regarded as representative or symbolic of something else, especially something
abstract (from the New Oxford American Dictionary).
Then have students work in pairs to craft a paraphrased definition of metaphor that they
can share with the class. Lastly, have them write down and share examples of
metaphor, jotting down also what the metaphor represents or symbolizes to them.
Distribute the text and ask participants to anticipate what they expect this reading to be
like. How is it organized? How is it similar and different to other texts they know?
Number every-other line of the poem (1-3-5-7…to 45). Read the poem as a whole class.
1
Robert Frost (1874–1963) was a US poet, noted for his ironic tone and simple
language. Much of his poetry reflects his ties to New England, including the collections
North of Boston (1914, from which “Mending Wall” was included) and New Hampshire
(1923). He won Pulitzer Prizes in 1924, 1931, and 1937.
Frost spoke at John F. Kennedy’s presidential inauguration in 1961, at the age of 86.
“Mending Wall” is considered a blank verse poem, with generally five stressed syllables
per line.
Provide (or mine participants for) definitions for Context/Rare Words: abreast, yelping,
mending-time, loaves, mischief, notion…
(Additionally, blank verse, metaphor, and imagery are all content discipline words that
will help aid student discussion and understanding.)
(Post directions.) Have participants mark words and phrases of interest as well as
puzzlement as they read the poem again alone. Participants should also consider
independently how the text is organized and consider why stanza breaks are not
included.
Next, can students identify examples of metaphor in the poem? What can they ‘see’ in
the poem? Have students choose their favorite line as an example of metaphor and a
favorite line that provides a powerful image (imagery). Students then turn and talk with a
neighbor, sharing their selections as they read the line.
Lastly, students read the poem again in groups of four—two turn and talk pairings.
2
 What ideas or values are found within this poem? (round-robin response)
Explain (spontaneous discussion).
 What conflicted emotions do you find in this poem?
 What example of metaphor or imagery strikes you as most interesting?
Most confusing?
 What do you think the author is thinking between lines 25-30? And why do
you think “Spring is the mischief…” in the author?
 The author writes toward the end of the poem:
“Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.”
Why might the author choose language that avoids direct ownership,
opting for something there instead?
 What purposes does the wall in the poem serve?
 What fences or walls exist in your life? How might they help you? How
could they be hurting you?
3
Students are asked to revisit their initial metaphors from the Launch Activity. Ask
students to now help the class construct a “T-chart”: a list all of the metaphors they find
in the poem coupled with what each metaphor may represent or symbolize to them.
After reading and discussing “Mending Wall”, write a poem in which you use the literary
device of metaphor. Consider your audience new students that need reminding or have
yet to learn about the use of metaphor. (Narrative)
Include a post-script to your poem that compares your use of metaphor to Frost’s
“Mending Wall.” (Informational or Explanatory/Comparison)
(LDC Task#: 23
)
Participants will use the definitions throughout the lesson and examples they have
created and identified to help craft a blank verse poem that utilizes metaphor. Students
may benefit by identifying emotions/conflicted emotions they found in the poem (core
4
question) and identifying an emotion/conflicted pair of emotions to focus on for their
poem: anger, competitiveness, freedom, joy, loneliness…
Allot a few minutes for all to revisit their notes, the text, and to refine their thinking.
Students may use a web with the emotion in the middle, branching out to encompass
the causes of the emotion and how that emotion can be represented or symbolized by
something. Reference the T-chart from the Transition To Writing activity as well.
Students are encouraged to get ideas down on paper based on the previous steps. No
erasing should be allowed. Lines to show additions/subtractions can be made—and
celebrated as part of the self-revision process! Once they are done (and a possible
minimum length has been met), a first draft can be considered complete.
Once the draft is complete, have participants work in pairs. As they read each other’s
work, they should be looking for three things:
1. The focus emotion or conflicted emotions
2. The metaphors used
3. What the metaphors are supposed to represent/symbolize
Revision suggestions should focus on these areas. Affirmations are helpful as well!
Writers should then begin a second draft.
Once the second draft is complete, have participants work in groups of three or four and
take turns reading each other’s second drafts slowly and silently, marking for spelling or
grammar errors only, with a limit 5-10 mark limit. (Have dictionaries and grammar
handbooks available for reference.) Take this opportunity to clarify/reteach any specific
strategies you have identified your students may need. Give time for full revisions and
editing, resulting in a third and final draft.
Publish (either virtually or on paper) the final copies of the resulting poems in a
collection to be shared for students new to the class—and new to the use of metaphors
and Robert Frost!
5
Kelly Foster
National Paideia Center
6
Mending Wall by Robert Frost
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of outdoor 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 apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.'
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say ‘Elves’ to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
7
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.'
Retrieved November 2014 from: www.poets.org
8