Hi Everyone!! This article will share Mending Wall Questions & Answers.
This poem is written by Robert Lee Frost. In my previous posts, I have shared the questions and answers of The Man On The Train, The Louse and The Mosquito and The Listeners so, you can check these posts as well.
Mending Wall Questions & Answers
Question 1: Choose the correct option:
(a) The poem makes the readers reflect upon the human habit of
i. breaking down boundaries in an attempt to reach out to one another.
ii. creating walls to mark boundaries and to keep peace with neighbours.
iii. not being bothered about boundaries and signs of ownership.
(b) The speaker
i. questions the need for walls.
ii. recommends the building of walls.
iii. recommends the timely repair of walls.
(c) The wall between the properties of the speaker and his neighbour is broken due to
i. the forces of nature.
ii. the forces of nature and the actions of hunters.
iii. the round shape of the stones which refuse to stay in place.
(d) It is difficult to rebuild the wall because
i. the heat of the sun causes the stones to expand and get dislodged.
ii. the sea water washes over the stones causing them to weaken.
iii. the boulders used are round and difficult to balance atop each other.
(e) The speaker and his neighbour communicate
i. and decide how to remain in touch in spite of the wall.
ii. and decide how to break the wall.
iii. but only to decide how to keep each other out of their properties.
Question 2: How do the hunters cause damage to the wall?
Answer: The hunters don’t even hesitate to tear down the walls to find the rabbits from hiding to please their barking, yelping dogs.
Question 3: Why does the mending of the wall, by the speaker and his neighbour, appear to be an ‘outdoor game’?
Answer: It has become an outdoor game because the boulders keep falling down and the neighbours keep rebuilding the wall by balancing them. The fingers of the neighbours are rough and callous with the handling of boulders over and over again. They find the task just like another outdoor game.
Question 4: What, according to the speaker, is the real reason to build a fence or a wall around one’s property?
Answer: The speaker points out that those walls are normally used to keep livestock enclosed but since they do not have that problem, they don’t require a wall. His neighbour is unwilling to compromise his hereditary wealth. He is unwilling to go beyond something his father used to say.
Question 5: What principle is the neighbour guided by? Would you call him an asocial person?
Answer: The neighbour believes that ‘Good fences make good neighbours’. He can be called an asocial person because despite his neighbours continual warnings he refuses to pull down the wall between their gardens. The wall serves no logical purpose since it is frail and keeps breaking, still the neighbour insists on putting that boundary between them.
Question 6: What does the speaker mean by ‘walling in and walling out’? do you think the speaker likes to make a wall to keep people out?
Answer: The speaker says that every time he builds the wall, he’d wonder what was he walling in or walling out. He always asked what was being separated and what was being brought together with the wall that they were constructing.
Question 7: Give example of the following from the poem:
(a) Simile
(b) Metaphor
(c) Personification
Question 8: Explain
Answer: The poet thinks that ‘elves’ don’t love a wall and they pull it down. However, he is not sure of who does this work exactly. He wishes that like himself, his neighbour too should not love walls and fences.
So, these were Mending Wall Questions & Answers.