Frost’s as well. Looking closely only at

Frost’s narrative poem “Mending Wall” incorporates aspects of modernism but deviates from it as well.

Looking closely only at the structure, this poem is a one stanza consisting of forty-five lines, which contradicts to his traditional poems such as “Design” or “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” that are highly structured with stanzas. This may astound readers but serves the purpose of a smooth-flowing conversational speech of the poem that creates a dialog between the speaker and his neighbor. This may also be emphasized by maintaining the use of traditional elements such as iambic pentameter for which he was renowned. The pentameter asserted intended to echo the stepwise which displays a methodical poem. This causes the poem to appear like a common story with a chronological order.

This looseness characterizes the speaker’s internal conflict and presents his thoughts without logic. Moreover, the use of American colloquial speech enhances the informality and is not esoteric, allowing emotional connection. The lengthy poem adds to the dramatic and incompatible narrative as it visualizes the image of a rock wall, which again relates back to the “Mending Wall” that is positioning the speaker in the neighbourhood with the tradition to build a barrier between neighbours.

However, the single stanza illustrates that there should be no boundary between humans; this raises the reader’s awareness that there should openness to different people in the community. Moreover, “Mending Wall” was first published in 1914 and the use of the word “wall”, which can be found many times throughout the poem, was rising over time since the 1850s and reached its peak in around 1910s and stays constant since then. This also adds to the contemporariness of the poem. However, “Mending Wall” deviates from contemporary as well.

This is portrayed from the message of the poem regarding property rights in adhering to John Locke: