Walls Don't Solve Problems

Robert Frost’s poem “Mending Walls” is as relevant today as it was when it was written in 1914. The speaker wants to tell his neighbor, “…Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,/That wants it down.” The meaning of this is any wall is a man-made thing and it always takes a lot of energy to maintain because it isn’t natural. Ultimately, it isn’t a good solution.

Today one of the most famous walls is in Israel to separate the Palestinians from the Israelis. This seems like a good idea to “make good neighbors,” but in fact many people are cut off from their jobs or fields—just like Frost is pointing out in the poem. The other famous wall, the Berlin Wall separating Germany after World War II, has finally come down. That too was done for “making good neighbors” but in fact it was never a natural way to deal with the people or issues of the time. The speaker in “Mending Walls” may have been a farmer who was especially aware of these rules of nature, however, he did not feel confident in ending the “wall” and instead he walked the wall each spring to fix it rather than confront the issues with his neighbor. Unfortunately, the Middle East is doing the same thing—continuing with a solution to problems that is really no solution at all. It is just a wall where “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,/That wants it down.”