ing image becomes, however, but a dramatic aside to the main concern of the poem. A more earthly consideration of an expression of that force which is responsible for the unexplained gaps which seasonally and mysteriously appear in the wall and await discovery in the spring with all the patience of the cosmos.We return to the air of mystery. These gaps that appear just seem to have happened, with no one seeing or hearing them being made. The idea of mending is introduced in the last line. Frost makes spring mending-time sound a natural part of the year. Like tree felling, sheep shearing and crop-harvesting. It is a ritual which has its own paradox, it causes two neighbors to cooperate so that the wall which separate them to be sustained. It divides even their energies at this moment as they keep the wall between them as they walk its line. The definition of the ritual in strong symbolic terms is a statement of humankinds determination to hang on to all that divides it.Furthermore in this stanza they fix the wall in springtime, after wintertime, when the frozen-ground-swell has done its work of destruction. Frost feels a sense of mischief, an urge to question deep rooted and unreasoned attitudes. So he questions his neighbours motto: why do good fences make good neighbours? He uses the most elementary of examples: if you had cows you would of course want to wall them in and stop them from roaming into others properties. But he points out the obvious, simple truth, in the most simple of language: But here there are no cows. Surely, such a persuasive argument must make his neighbour rethink his preoccupation that you need walls between you to make good neighbours. Frost questions the reasons for the wall being built in the first place. He sees a couple of reasons for building a wall: if there is something you need to keep in or out, build a wall; if some trouble can result from open spaces, build a wall. Otherwise why have one? He climaxes...
