Lesson Two - The Mending Wall

Introduction

Lesson Two - The Mending Wall
Duration - 3 blocks (3 x 80 min + homework)

"We just can’t get enough of walls, can we? People love a good boundary. We love them when we’re little, protecting our precious toys from our nosy, destructive siblings. As we get older, we begin to throw around the gentle term 'personal space,' as in GET OUT OF MY ROOM!' In college, we REALLY learn how the 'mi casa es tu casa' philosophy doesn’t always result in happy roommate relationships. After we become adults with steady jobs and a lot of cool things in our garage, we often put up fences, gates, walls, or doors to protect our stuff and keep the peace. Walls help us protect ourselves, but their dratted downside is that they often keep people from communicating with each other.

"'Mending Wall' makes us take a look at how we use our walls and boundaries, and why we use them the way we do. This poem sends a wake-up call to the universe. Think of it like a spring-cleaning project in which Frost, with broom and dust pan in hand, hopes to reevaluate the habits that humans can’t seem to shake. Boundaries aren’t necessarily a bad thing, this poem seems to tell us, as long as we occasionally question the purpose of our walls, or maybe just as long as we question." - Shmoop.com