TP-CASTT Poetry Analysis: “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost, Study notes of Poetry

Download TP-CASTT Poetry Analysis: “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost and more Study notes Poetry in PDF only on Docsity! TP-CASTT Poetry Analysis: “Mending Wall” by Robert Frost Use the poem “Mending Wall” to complete the chart below. T Title​: Before reading the poem, make a prediction about what the poem is about based on the title. The title is ambiguous in that this poem could be about a wall that needs to be mended that has for some reason been destroyed or damaged in some way. It could also be about a wall that mends in some sort of way. P Paraphrase​: Translate the poem line by line into your own words. Look for complete thoughts and look up unfamiliar words. There is something in nature that doesn’t love a wall, so it sends groundswells beneath it that force the rocks on the top of the wall to fall off, making gaps large enough to fit two people, thus eliminating the purpose of the wall. The hunters are another story: I have had to come after them and repair their mess as they break up the wall to search for and bring rabbits out of hiding to please their hunting dogs. The gaps though: no one has ever seen them or heard them made, but at springtime we see them there. I let my neighbor beyond the hill know and we arrange a day to meet at and mend the wall from each side. We keep the wall between us as we go. Each replaces the boulders that have fallen on his side. Some are shaped like loaves of bread and others have crumbled into balls. We have to use magic to make them stay, like saying, “Stay there until I turn around!” Our fingers are rough and calloused from handling the stones. It’s just like another outdoor game with each player on his own side. Here’s the deal: We really do not need the wall. He has pine trees and I have an apple orchard. I tell him, “My apple trees will never cross over and eat your pinecones,” but he says “Good fences make good neighbors.” Spring makes me creative so I think of challenging his ideas by saying, “Why do they make good neighbors? Don’t you only put walls up where there are cows? We don’t have any cows. Before I put a wall up I would like to know what I am walling in or out and who it would offend. There is something that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.” I could tell him it is elves but it is not really elves and I’d rather he come up with it on his own. I see him there, grabbing a stone in each hand like an old savage. He seems to be in darkness, not just of woods and the shade of the trees. He will not deviate from his father’s saying and he stubbornly repeats “Good fences make good neighbors.” C Connotation​: What words or phrases stick out to you? Look for patterns and figurative language, imagery, and sound elements. “Something there is that doesn’t love wall”: Personification of an idea--the natural world or even human nature are given intention and will by this statement--they are actively challenging the concept of barriers Repetition of “good fences make good neighbors”: The father’s saying creates a literal and figurative wall between the two neighbors, which encourages isolation and prevents connection and community Metaphors/imagery in describing the boulders as “loaves” and “balls”: This adds to the imagery of the poem, which makes it more visceral. “whom I was likely to give offense”: This is a pun; the speaker is questioning who he is going “to offend” if there is no wall, as they rebuild “a fence.” Also, neither character is “on the fence” about the issues, as they represent opposite points of view in this poem. Grade 11: Our Town