"The Mending Wall" is a poem that contains many symbols,
the chief of which is the mending wall itself. The mending wall can represent separation
or alienation--the walls that people construct to separate themselves from
others:
"Good
fences make good
neighbors."
Or it can
symbolize the adherence to ritual and routine even when the ritual or routine no longer
serves any purpose:
There where it is we do not need the
wall
In addition, it may also
symbolize a unity or connection between people as both neighbors come together each
spring to repair the wall.
The characters in this poem are
symbolic as well. The neighbor is the symbol of tradition. He
will
not go
behind his father's
saying
while the speaker is
the symbol of creativity and rebellion:
Before I built a wall I'd ask to
know
What I was walling in or walling
out.
These symbolic elements
work nicely in the poem to show the complexities of human interactions. A balance
certainly is needed between connection and separation; ritual and whimsy, following
tradition and questioning it.
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