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Blogs > alteridalterego > Sensual Symphony

alteridalterego 64M
552 posts
8/25/2007 7:56 pm
Behind Every Stone Wall is a Story
With the beginning of a new school year, I’ve been fantasizing about classes I would love to take. This led me to classes I’ve had. There was this rhetoric course I really enjoyed. When it came to a test, one question required us to explain the meaning of Robert Frost’s Mending Wall.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall

When the results were returned, I saw he was not enchanted with my response to this question. He proceeded to discuss the test and in one word explained the Mending Wall was about “non-thinking.” I thought about this as he continued discussing the rest of the exam. The format of the class allowed us to approach him after his talk so a line formed.

My turn came and I asked, “Do you think Mr. Frost could’ve been saying more than that? I mean, there are so many words in this poem so it seems there must be a lot more to it.”

Sometimes, he would enjoy discussing these things with me. This was not one of those times. All he said was, “No, not really” and turned to the next student.

A few years later, I came upon this (from Robert Frost and the New England Renaissance. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1988. Copyright © 1988 by the UP of Kentucky):

Asked once about his intended meaning, Frost recast the question: "In my Mending Wall was my intention fulfilled with the characters portrayed and the atmosphere of the place?" Characteristically, he went on to answer obliquely.

I should be sorry if a single one of my poems stopped with either of those things—stopped anywhere in fact. My poems—I should suppose everybody's poems—are all set to trip the reader head foremost into the boundless. Ever since infancy I have had the habit of leaving my blocks carts chairs and such like ordinaries where people would be pretty sure to fall forward over them in the dark. Forward, you understand, and in the dark. I may leave my toys in the wrong place and so in vain. It is my intention we are speaking of—my innate mischievousness.
____________________________

Here’s a quote of his I love:

Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up.

I like a balance of thinking and non-thinking in my life. Sometimes, the more I think, the more I appreciate non-thinking. When it comes to thinking though, I would like to sign up for a class with Mr. Frost along with quite a few others.

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