Robert Frost’s Poetry

Why does the neighbor say that "good fences make good neighbours" in "Mending Wall"?

He is repeating what his father used to say.

Which practice was common among modernist poets?

using experimental techniques

Which practice was typical of Robert Frost?

using traditional forms

Who is the speaker of the "Mending Wall"?

the apple orchard owner

Read the excerpt from "Mending Wall."

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
"Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down."

Now read "The Pasture," also by Robert Frost.

I’m going out to clean the pasture spring;
I’ll only stop to rake the leaves away
(And wait to watch the water clear, I may):
I shan’t be gone long.—You come too.

I’m going out to fetch the little calf
That’s standing by the mother. It’s so young,
It totters when she licks it with her tongue.
I shan’t be gone long.—You come too.

Which best accounts for the different views of spring expressed in the poems?

The poems have different speakers.

Read the poem "The Purple Cow," by Gelett Burgess.

The Purple Cow
(Reflections on a Mythic Beast Who’s Quite Remarkable, at Least.)

I never saw a Purple Cow;
I never hope to See One;
But I can Tell you, Anyhow,
I’d rather See than Be One.

What is the main difference between "The Purple Cow" and Frost’s poem "Mending Wall"?

the use of rhyming in "The Purple Cow"

Read the excerpt from "Mending Wall."

He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, "Good fences make good neighbours."

Based on the excerpt, what does the speaker most likely think about the wall?

The wall is unnecessary.

Read the excerpt from "Mending Wall."

I let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
"Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.

What does the phrase "one on a side" mean?

The speaker and the neighbor repair the wall from opposite sides.

Which lines from "Mending Wall" best indicate that the speaker is amused while repairing the wall?

We have to use a spell to make them balance: "Stay where you are until our backs are turned!"

Read the poem "The Purple Cow," by Gelett Burgess.

The Purple Cow
(Reflections on a Mythic Beast Who’s Quite Remarkable, at Least.)

I never saw a Purple Cow;
I never hope to See One;
But I can Tell you, Anyhow,
I’d rather See than Be One.

What is the main similarity between "The Purple Cow" and Frost’s poem "Mending Wall"?

Both use humorous language.

Which lines from "Mending Wall" indicate that the neighbor is willing to participate in mending the wall?

I let my neighbour know beyond the hill; And on a day we meet to walk the line And set the wall between us once again. We keep the wall between us as we go.

Read the poem "Fog," by Carl Sandburg.

The fog comes
on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

What is the main similarity between "Fog" and Frost’s poem "Mending Wall"?

Both use everyday language.

Read the excerpt from Princess Ida by Gilbert and Sullivan.

Women of Adamant, fair neophytes—
Who thirst for such instruction as we give,
Attend, while I unfold a parable.
The elephant is mightier than Man,
Yet Man subdues him. Why? The elephant
Is elephantine everywhere but here (tapping her forehead)
And Man, whose brain is to the elephant’s
As Woman’s brain to Man’s—(that’s rule of three),—
Conquers the foolish giant of the woods,
As Woman, in her turn, shall conquer Man.

This excerpt is an example of

NOT heroic couplet free verse???