ch divides them.As they mend, Frost begins to question the reasoning behind the walls existence. His neighbor’s only response is “Good fences make good neighbors” (27). The neighbor’s uninterested attitude and indifferent response forces Frost to inquire further. He attempts to justify the wall by using a logical argument. There would be a need for walls if they had cows or similar pasture animals, but he and his neighbor have no such animals. Frost not only wants his neighbor to consider what he is walling in but also ponder what he is walling out and why. Deaf to any arguments, the farmer “will not go behind his father’s saying” and question his strong conviction of good fences making good neighbors (43). The stubborn neighbor’s blind acceptance and “in the dark” way of living is paralleled by the image Frost paints of him. In line 40, a simile is used describing him as “like an old-stone savage armed” as he works toward restoring the wall. This man who is so insistent on maintaining this wall is a product of a long-gone age of thinking. He is like a savage from the time when it was essential to wall yourself off from other savages for safety and protection. Lines 41 and 42 continue: “He moves in the darkness as it seems to me, not of woods only and the shade of trees.” He is not only in the dimness provided by the trees, but he is also in darkness of the past. He has not made the transition into a more civilized, enlightened age when your don’t need these protective boundaries from others.Barker 3 In order to understand the further meaning behind this poem, we must continue to look beyond the deceptively simple exterior. Frost has skillfully employed meter in a manner to help the reader accomplish this. The poem’s blank verse presents an extended series of rugged lines without an interruption, much like the wall itself. ...
