Comments on: On building walls

By: OlderandWheezier

OlderandWheezier — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 18:42:51 +0000

Thanks for sharing the poem, neo. It’s probably my favorite of Frost’s, but I hadn’t taken the time to read it in years.

I recall attempting to recite it for a classroom exercise in the 1970’s, my anxiety leaving me with a voice that was high-pitched and unnatural. (I did a far better job of it just now.)

By: The Other Chuck

The Other Chuck — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 16:44:03 +0000

I spent the last half hour composing a reasoned, dispassionate response, arguing that a wall by any other name would accomplish the desired result and how symbolism gets in the way. After looking it over I decided it would be wasted here.

The first stanza of Belloc’s The Rebel, and only the first stanza says it better:

There is a wall of which the stones
Are lies and bribes and dead men’s bones.
And wrongfully this evil wall
Denies what all men made for all,
And shamelessly this wall surrounds
Our homesteads and our native grounds.

By: Lorenz Gude

Lorenz Gude — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 13:07:40 +0000

I grew up on a farm in NH in the late 40s and 50s and even as I sweat in the heat of the Western Australian summer the understatement, the sly implications, the irony, even the body language come across time and space with palpable clarity. Of course in that time and place we would never us a term like body language or fret over bunnies. Anyone who did would earn a well concealed look of contempt.

By: om

om — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 03:27:25 +0000

Frog:

As I recal the author of the more recent article plys his trade in New England (Vermont)?

By: Frog

Frog — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 02:31:20 +0000

om:
I have built several hundred feet of stone walls aka fences. They still stand, unchanged. They were not built in frost-heave country though.

By: om

om — Tue, 16 Jan 2018 01:21:11 +0000

Frog:

Building and maintaining a stone wall isn’t quite so simple to do right.

Before pressure treated wood, you used cedar for rot resistance.

http://www.finehomebuilding.com/2017/03/07/stone-walls-stay-built
http://www.finehomebuilding.com/1999/11/01/building-dry-stone-walls

By: Frog

Frog — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 23:41:12 +0000

OK, Neo. There is a lot for me not to like about the narrator of this poem.

My point about the frost heaves, which you repeat, is taken from the poem. They occur unwitnessed, my point exactly, and Frost’s too. Despite that, he invokes hunters (and perhaps trespassers by implication).

By: neo-neocon

neo-neocon — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 23:04:55 +0000

Frog: By the way, one doesn't hear frost heaves or even see them happen. One sees the result, whether it be the upward displacement of the road, or the movement of rocks. The freezing happens underground and causes the lift, and then in the spring when there's a thaw there's often more movement (generally, downward). Lots of information about it here, as well as at many other sites.

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 22:59:48 +0000

That was indeed a very long list, and some of the barriers are up to 20 years old and older.
I notice that one particular reason is cited for the huge majority of the walls as justification.
Three guesses, if you haven’t looked yet, and the first two don’t count.

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Mon, 15 Jan 2018 22:56:28 +0000

“Such boundary walls are actually quite common around the world, as you can see, and there are myriad reasons for having them (scroll down at the link for the very long list). Is it only the US that’s not allowed to have a wall?”
* * *
It’s only the US that’s not allowed to do a lot of things, or is required to do other things (fund the UN at an outrageously high level, for instance, and send aid to people who want to kill us (although that last is shared with Israel)).