5.05 Analyzing 20th Century Poetry

1. Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.
My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.
He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.
The woods are lovely, dark, and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.
"STOPPING BY WOODS ON A SNOWY EVENING" BY ROBERT FROST
Tyler Elmore
5.05
Analyzing 20th Century Poetry
"Robert Frost." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Apr. 2004. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Frost>.
Urgelt. "Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening." YouTube. YouTube, 23 Dec. 2007. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nie5dGD6OQA>.

2. The “Roaring Twenties” old traditions became a thing of the past quickly. The twenties was a time of culture change and had
a huge impact on the way American’s lived. Cities were overpopulated, organized crime was at an all time high due to
Prohibition, and crooked politicians and gangsters were on the rise. New inventions created convenience, but also more jobs
in the 1920’s, which meant people had more money to spend on things they did not necessary need, but wanted. Music like
jazz and dances like the fox trot were more upbeat than traditional music from the 19th century. Radio broadcasts had the
capability to spread news and entertainment across the nation. The “Roaring Twenties” was the mark of a new era in
America.
During 1920’s, the world was moving much faster than ever before. Because it was, I think the poem “Stopping by Woods on
a Snowy Evening” written By Robert Frost in 1922, is a poem about a man simply stopping to take in the calmness and
natural beauty of a simpler time when things were not so chaotic, and also to reflect back on a time when old traditions and
values meant something.

3. “Mending Wall” By Robert Frost
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor 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 outdoor 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.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
'Why do they make good neighbors? 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 offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.' I could say 'Elves' to him,
But it's not elves exactly, and I'd rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, 'Good fences make good neighbors.'
Tyler Elmore
5.05
Analyzing 20th Century Poetry
"Mending Wall by Robert Frost." Mending Wall by Robert Frost. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2016. <http://www.marinrose.org/poem-spring04.html>.
"Mending Wall." Romancing the Road to Recovery. N.p., 28 June 2015. Web. 14 Dec. 2016. <https://romancingtheroadtorecovery.wordpress.com/2015/06/28/mending-wall/>.

4. Racism, discrimination and prejudice against African Americans was still very much alive in the twentieth century. The Ku Klux Klan was one of
the major anti-Semitic hate groups that inflicted hate crimes against African Americans. There were laws passed to protect them from hate
crimes by these groups and Amendments written in the constitution that allowed African American men to vote. However, these laws and
Amendments were often overlooked.
Wealthy business owners wanted African Americans to work for them, because they would work for less money and longer hours, which caused
a lot of friction with white people who couldn’t find work. However, these business owners did not believe they deserved the to have the same
rights or wages other white American citizens had. Their schools were also segregated and their education poor. They were also sent war
because we needed them, but most were placed in non battle positions.
There are many interpretations of Robert Frost’s poem, “Mending Wall”. My own interpretation was that Frost did not like the fact that his
neighbor insisted on repairing the wall that separated them. He mentions he had an Apple Orchard, and his neighbor had pine cones on their
properties, which is the only thing that made them “different”, but non the less, it made them different.
I think the neighbor wanted to keep repairing the wall to keep him out, or at the very least at a distance. Kind of like the Wealthy business owner
wants the African American to work for him, but doesn’t want to pay him the same as his own race. Or, why white politicians felt it was okay to
send African American men to war, but didn’t protect them from the violence they experienced in their own country.
The line “Good fences make good neighbors,” from Frost’s poem to me is like saying, “hey, as long as you benefit me, I will smile and pretend you
really have rights by allowing you to peak through the wall. However, because you feel you are the “the same” as me and deserve the same
rights, we are going to keep repairing this wall to remind you that you don’t”.