this poem are very abstract because the reader has to look very hard in order to get them. In line 17, the youth is talking about how the wall has dropped bricks the shape of, loaves and balls. What the youth is actually commenting on indirectly is how the loaf is like the old man: square, and doesnt change or move very much. And the ball is himself, always moving around and rolling into situations where he gets trapped by a square object. Another metaphor in the poem was the youth saying that mending that wall was, Oh, just another outdoor game. The youth doesnt think much of the wall and is playing along with the old man since it is the only time of the year they meet one another. Symbols/opposites In order for the reader to better understand the poem, he/she must recognize the symbols that are in the poem. The first word we see in the poem was a symbol. The something, the narrator is talking about stands for the unknown and a higher being in life. The hunters and dogs symbolized nature and its different ways of tearing the wall apart. The two men we are introduced to are complete opposites; one is a young man who represents youth, and the other an older man who is traditional. Another opposite in the poem is the use of the word pine trees and apple orchards. The pine trees are solid, steady, and cointinueuesly grows and matures with time every day of the season, and represents the traditional side. While the apple trees only grow apples once a year, and are radical because of their different shapes, colors and sizes. These apples represent new ideas and change while the pine is the opposite. The poem starts out in the morning with the sun, but ends in darkness. The sun represented the first half of the poem, the youth being enlightened with questions, but ends in darkness when the wall is nearly complete and the questioning was subsided. The wall itself is a symbol; it represents the conflict between tradition and change. The holes ...
