logo

24 pages 48 minutes read

Robert Frost

Mending Wall

Robert FrostFiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1914

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

Background

Authorial Context: The Life of Robert Frost

In English classes and literary anthologies, Frost and New England are often inextricably linked, but his image as a farmer poet whose identity was galvanized by his relationship with the rugged natural landscape of this particular region of America warrants a closer look. Like many of the poems for which Frost is famous, “Mending Wall” examines humans in relation to nature, and the detailed nature imagery in the poem implies that both speaker and poet enjoy a special intimacy with place and a poignant appreciation of the notion of nature as home. In reality, however, Frost the man was not as rooted to the earth as his poems may have one believe.

Though Frost’s collection North of Boston contains many poems like “Mending Wall” that concern New England farming life, the themes of Frost’s own life are ironically in opposition to the steady reliability that characterizes the themes of the collection. By the time he published his first collection of poems at the age of 39, Frost had already lived a complicated life as a sometimes farmer and sometimes teacher. For various parts of his life Frost lived in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. Further afield, he also had two residences in England, one in Key West, Florida and one in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
blurred text
Unlock IconUnlock all 24 pages of this Study Guide

Plus, gain access to 8,650+ more expert-written Study Guides.

Including features:

+ Mobile App
+ Printable PDF
+ Literary AI Tools