In “Mending Wall” we learn that hunters have knocked down a wall between two neighbours and they decide to build it up again together, one on each side. However there is a much deeper meaning to this poem than there appears to be at first glance. The two neighbours are maintaining the barriers between them by building up the wall. They are trying to protect their possessions. The two men building the wall are very different. One has an inability to think for himself and just says what is socially acceptable whereas the other man is more of a free spirit and is imaginative and fulfilled. Having written this poem Frost wanted his readers to understand that by looking at nature you can see the different types of people in the world and the different attitudes they have to life.
Frost uses many stylistic features to make his message memorable. He uses assonance to slow down the pace of the poem and we can therefore picture the depicted scene clearly in our minds. It is used in the phrase “not one stone on a stone”. We can imagine the wall completely destroyed by hunters. Another device used by Frost is colloquialism. We see this in the line ‘the gaps I mean’. The colloquialism is used so that the reader can connect with the poem. Another device used is omonatopoela, we see this in the phrase ‘yelping dogs’. The sounds used means the reader can feel what it was like to be there as she can actually hear the sounds. Frost uses a cliché to make his message memorable, it is ‘good fences make good neighbours’. This cliché highlights how straight laced and boring this man is compared to the narrator. Finally Frost uses a metaphor to keep his message memorable, it is ‘He is all pine and I am all apple orchard’. These two trees depict the men perfectly. Pine trees are never changing whereas apple trees change through the seasons and blossom.
The poet I have chosen to compare and contrast Frost with is Heaney. Seamus Heaney was born in April 1939. His father owned and worked a small farm in County Derry in Northern Ireland. When he was twelve years of age. Seamus won a scholarship to St. Columba’s College, a catholic boarding school in Derry city. He lived in Belfast between 1957 and 1972 and then moved to the Irish Republic. He also has had regular teaching periods in America. Heaney’s poems first came to public attention in the mid 1960’s. Heaney’s poems are often dark because of the quarter century of violence and inner distrust he was born into. He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995.
Seamus Heaney’s poetry essentially aims to show his readers the reality of everyday life. In his poetry we can often see how his upbringing in troubled Northern Ireland has affected him. Having read some poems of Heaney’s we see how each has their unique message. In ‘Follower’ we learn how life changes and how, as people become older, they lose their power. In ‘Blackberry – Picking’ we learn of the human capacity for hope and that hope is eternal. In ‘Churning Day’ we see how something ordinary is changed into something beautiful. In ‘A Potato Digging’ we learn of Ireland’s past and how, far the country has come to the present day.
The poem I have chosen to compare and contrast with Frosts’ ‘Mending Wall’ is ‘Digging’. I feel this poem is the best example of his message and his style. The poem tells the story of a boy watching his father digging the potatoes. The deeper meaning of this poem shows the passing of an age, the attractions and repulsions of digging and how the way of making a living has changed. He wanted his readers to realize what potato digging is really like and what it is like to be there. Heaney uses a number of literary devices to make his message memorable. Firstly, he uses onomatopoeia ‘the squat pen rests’ to show us what the pen was like, this is also personification as the pen is resting. These two devices give us an idea that the pen is lazy. Another device used is the simile’ snug as a gun’. The image of violence shocks us and encourages us to read on. Another literary device used is alliteration, ‘gravelly around’ shows us the harsh resistance of the soil and how hard digging it must have been. Heaney also uses repition, ‘by god, the old man could handle a spade. Just like his old man.” The repetition shows how men are caught in a trap.
We see many differences and similarities between Frost’s ‘Mending Wall’ and Heaneys ‘Digging’.
The first similarity we see between them is that both use colloquialisms in their poems so the reader can relate to their message. We see this when ‘Digging’ says, ‘by God’ and in ‘Mending Wall’ it says ‘The gaps, I mean” Using everyday language makes the poems seem more real and they immediately become of more relevance to the reader as they can relate to them in their everyday life
Another similarity we see is that they both use devices such as alliteration to bring out the slowness or speed in which something is done. When alliteration is used in a poem it can have great affect on how the poem reads and how well the reader can picture the event taking place.
The first difference we see in the poems is through the two poets different style in writing. Frosts’ poetry is very symbolic whereas Heaney’s poetry is personal, it is about his family members and specific people.
Another difference we see is that Frost’s poem is about the different attitudes to life. Frost’s poetry is about the different attitudes to life. Haney’s poetry is about how life changes.
In conclusion, the poem I like the most is Heaney’s ‘Digging’. I feel it is easy to relate to and I enjoy his style of writing. He is an Irish poet and I can relate to the problems he is talking about as they are relevant to the Irish way of life.
