On occasion, I am fortunate; I find that an essayist heard on National Public Radio has written a commentary and published the text for all to read. Thus far, I have yet to locate the transcript for “‘Good Fences’: Misreading Poetry,” an essay I heard this evening on All Things Considered. However, I will keep searching. Until then, I am offering a link to the story so you might listen to the author himself.
Jay Keyser, Professor of Linguistics at MIT is baffled and distressed by the use of a Robert Frost verse in defense of building walls between borders. He speaks of how the oft quoted poem, “Mending Wall” is misunderstood, if analyzed at all.
The poem closes with the line we all recall “Good fences make good neighbours.” When people speak of immigration, or more accurately segregation, they use this declaration to justify their stance.
However, as Professor Keyser so aptly points out the elegy begins,
“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.”
Mr. Keyser offers, Robert Frost thinks there are walls that function as “walls.” They are practical parapets, or purposeful buttress. However, sadly, according to the poem, Frost recognizes walls and fences can be barriers.
Keyser, reflecting on history and using the verse to support his belief, surmises countries build “walls” to “keep out the unwanted and keep in the unwilling.” They build barriers that fight against the blending of people.
Linguist Keyser objects to these fortifications, as he states Frost does. The academician argues, Frost is questioning the reason for such ridiculous artifacts. So too is [Samuel] Jay Keyser. I hope that after listening to his commentary and reflecting upon the famous Robert Frost poem, you too will ask why would we wish to build a wall. Frost does . . .
“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.
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That wants it down.”
I certainly have no desire to create fences; I do not love a wall. I love my [thy] neighbors.
References for your Review . . .
- National Public Radio
- All Things Considered
- “‘Good Fences’: Misreading Poetry” The Xenophobic School: Misreading Poetry
- “Mending Wall,” By Robert Frost
- Robert Frost
- Samuel Jay Keyser, Professor of Linguistics at MIT
- Samuel Jay Keyser, Bibliography
Betsy L. Angert Be-Think
