Mending Wall Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dymock, Gloucestershire

In 1912 Robert Frost moved to England to concentrate on writing full-time. It was there that he wrote the poem "Mending Wall", which was published in 1914 by the British publishers David Nutt and Company, the second of his books to be published there before an American publisher accepted his work.

The Frost family lived in all four of these places, as well as a number of others around New England (and, for some time, in Ann Arbor, Michigan).

Answer: "North of Boston"

These were Robert Frost's first four collections of poetry. "North of Boston" (1914 in England; 1915 in USA) was the second to be published, although the American publishers released it a few months before "A Boy's Will" (1913 in England; 1915 in USA). "New Hampshire" (1923), Frost's fourth book of poems, was the one for which he received the first of four Pulitzer Prizes.

It includes the oft-quoted "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening", another pastoral incident used to evoke larger issues.

Answer: blank verse

Blank verse is unrhymed (usually iambic) pentameter. This poem is unrhymed pentameter, although Frost varies the feet widely from the rhythmic 'da DA' of the iamb. This allows him to reflect the patterns of speech, action and thought being described, while periodically returning us to the comforting familiarity of the iamb.

This playful approach to the form reflects the narrator's urge to play with ideas, and to challenge easy assumptions.

Answer: Something there is that doesn't love a wall

"Good fences make good neighbors" is part of the last line of the poem, spoken by the neighbor. "Whose woods these are I think I know" is the first line of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"; "Two roads diverged in a yellow way" is the first line of "The Road Not Taken"; all four lines are popular Frost quotations.

Answer: a wall made of granite boulders balanced on top of each other

Boulders are referred to a number of times during the poem. Being set in New Hampshire, and of the shapes described, they are almost certainly made of the granite outcroppings that were frequently used to build walls as fields were cleared by settlers in preparation for agricultural plantings. Careful balancing produces a sturdy wall, or at least one that will stand up against most human and animal activities in the fields.

Answer: winter frosts that cause the ground to move

'Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it
And spills the upper boulder in the sun,
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.' (Lines 1-4)

Hunters are described as causing occasional, although significant, damage. It is the frost that means there will be a 'spring mending-time', as referred to in Line 12. Neither the two kinds of trees adjacent to the wall nor the local children are suggested as having any responsibility.

Answer: all of these, to varying degrees

Paradoxically, the two men are shown as coming most closely together to work cooperatively as they resurrect the barrier between themselves:
'And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.'

Despite Frost's contention that the wall is not needed between the two properties, his neighbor clearly thinks it is. Clear demarcation of territory reduces the possibility of arguments over property issues, as his father taught him. This annual ritual recalls the Roman festival of Terminalia, during which neighbors met at the stones separating the properties (landmarks) to reaffirm the boundaries.

Answer: apple orchard and pine plantation

According to Line 24, 'He is all pine and I am apple orchard'; Line 31 states that 'here there are no cows'. In fact, if cows had been involved, the wall might have had an apparent practical purpose!

Answer: inspecting the Berlin Wall during a trip to Germany

Apparently this was felt so strongly that the Russian version of the poem was republished without the first line!

Answer: both physical and metaphorical

According to lines 42 through 45, the darkness is
'Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."'

The narrator enjoys the process of mending the wall, while the neighbor's experience is of a chore whose completion is paramount. He is caught in the 'darkness' of repeating the thoughts of others, unable to play mind games with regard to his actions. Possibly this difference in attitude is actually the significant wall between the two men.

The narrator's playful attitude can clearly be seen a number of times during the poem:

'We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"' (Lines 18 and 19)

'Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:' (Lines 21 and 22)

'Spring is the mischief in me' (Line 28)

'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 to 34)

When read out loud, Line 34 is indistinguishable from the alternative 'And to whom I was like to give a fence', making it a totally unnecessary pun.