Symbol. A symbol is a thing that stands for or represents both itself and something else. As you read “Mending Wall,” decide what the wall symbolizes.
Character. A character is a figure who participates in the action of a literary work. A protagonist, or main character, is the central figure in a literary work. An antagonist is a character who is pitted against a protagonist. Think about the characteristics of the speaker’s neighbor as you read “Mending Wall.” Is he the protagonist or the antagonist?
Metaphor. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which one thing is spoken or written about as if it were another. As you read the poem, look for the lines in which the man expresses his grief after digging the child’s grave and determine what the lines mean metaphorically.
Diction. Diction, when applied to writing, refers to word choice. Much of a writer’s style or voice is determined by his or her diction, the types of words that are chosen, whether formal or informal, simple or complex, contemporary or archaic, ordinary or unusual, standard or dialectical. Find examples characteristic of the wife’s diction as you read.
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Robert Frost had a rare talent that enabled him to produce poetry simple and clear enough to appeal to a large audience and yet intellectually rich enough to appeal to sophisticated literary critics. Frost wrote often of the nature and people of his adopted home of New England. He wrote in the language of ordinary speech and didn’t care for modern free verse, which he likened to “playing tennis without a net.” Instead, he wrote in conventional forms, including blank verse made up of unrhymed iambic pentameter lines, as in “Mending Wall” and “Home Burial.” (An iambic pentameter line has ten alternating weakly stressed and strongly stressed syllables: “And spills the upper boulders in the sun.”)
Many of Frost’s finest poems, such as the narrative poem “The Death of the Hired Man,” in the Selections for Additional Reading on page 594, are dramatic monologues or dramatic dialogues. Such poems present a situation in which one or two people speak, sometimes to an imaginary audience.
Robert Frost receives a congressional medal for his contribution to American literature from President Kennedy in 1962.
Why do you think people build walls between themselves and others?
Describe a failure of communication you experienced with someone you care about.
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