Out of all of Frost's richly symbolic poems, this appears
to be one of the most controversial in terms of its ambiguity--that is, it is open
to opposing interpretations. The poem presents two mind-sets, and it is unclear which of
the two is being endorsed. The neighbour expresses the view that walls are useful, while
the speaker seems them as barriers that should be torn down. There are also other
ambiguities: for example, if the speaker dislikes walls, why does he begin the wall
mending every spring?
However, given this ambiguity, and
regardless of whether you are for or against walls and their symbolic meaning, I think
one of the most interesting phrases in the poem is when the narrator discusses how to
think about whether to build a wall or not:
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
offence.
This, to me, lies at
the heart of the poem, because when we build metaphorical walls in terms of our identity
or who we include, we will always exclude others. It seems to be a truth about wall
building that building a wall necessarily entails keeping some in and others out. One
the one hand, walls are shown to be necessary, in that they promote privacy, define
boundaries and protect rights. On the other hand, walls encourage separateness,
isolation, and suspicion. Walls seem to be helpful in some areas and extremely harmful
in others.
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