Mending Wall Review Unit 2

PART B: Which phrase from the text best supports the answer to Part A?

"'Stay where you are until our backs are turned!'" ( Line 19)

PART B: Which TWO phrases from the text best support the answers to Part A?

"There where it is we do not need the wall: / He is all pine and I am apple orchard." ( Lines 23-24) & "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." ( Lines 32-34)

PART A: What does the word "spell" most closely mean as it is used in line 18?

Command

PART A: Which TWO of the following best identify the central themes of this poem?

Human connection & Questioning the status quo

How does the poem's form relate to its meaning? Cite evidence from the poem in your response.

The poet's loose usage of iambic pentameter, which conveys a methodic yet relaxed tone, mirror the speaker's actions and mood. Students may also mention the shape of the poem, which, on its side, looks similar to a dilapidated rock wall. Other relevant answers could include the lack of rhyme scheme, which conveys a more conversational tone as if the speaker is speaking in stream-of-consciousness, or the repetition of certain key phrases, such as "Something there is that doesn't love a wall" and "Good fences make good neighbors," which emphasizes the two disparate points of view in the poem.

Explain how the speaker's point of view shifts throughout the poem. Cite evidence from the poem in your response.

the speaker's point of view and shifts throughout the poem. The poem begins with an ambiguous "Something there is that doesn't love a wall," and for the first several lines the speaker is fixated on the mysterious reasons for its dismantling - "the frozen-ground-swell," the "work of hunters," etc. with only a brief mention of his attempts to keep the wall intact: "I have come after them and made repair" (line 6). In line 12 we learn that the speaker initiates the mending of the wall with his neighbor, suggesting that either the wall is something he values having, or that perhaps he enjoys the company of his neighbor during mending time. The actual act of mending evokes a playful tone as the speaker describes the process of resetting the stones, likening it even to a "just another kind of outdoor game." Then, quite suddenly, there is a change in point of view in the middle of the poem at line 23, at which point the speaker quite suddenly remarks that "we do not need the wall." Perhaps he has come to an epiphany that the wall is unnecessary, or perhaps he has suspected this all along (one could argue that he may be the "Something there is that doesn't love a wall" from the very first line). He begins by suggesting to his neighbor the rationality for why a wall is not needed, and is met with a trite platitude: "Good fences make good neighbors." The speaker further explores this expression, which we learned the neighbor picked up from his father, and the speaker cements his opinion that a wall should have a real purpose.