What a clever poem. I read this in college, but that was so long ago.
Two men, who share a stone wall between their properties, discuss why they have a wall in the first place. The wall seems archaic to one neighbor, but the other neighbor, who finds the wall purposeful, replies that good fences make good neighbors.
They walk the length of the wall, repairing it as they go; but why, asks the anti-wall neighbor, when it seems that nature always breaks it down again?
And what is the point of the wall if neither of them have livestock, anti-wall neighbor wants to know. And should one be concerned about the apple trees eating the pine cones on the other side of the wall? Impossible!
And yet all of the mending and walking together and discussion of the wall is done amicably, demonstrating that good fences do make good neighbors after all.
Two men, who share a stone wall between their properties, discuss why they have a wall in the first place. The wall seems archaic to one neighbor, but the other neighbor, who finds the wall purposeful, replies that good fences make good neighbors.
They walk the length of the wall, repairing it as they go; but why, asks the anti-wall neighbor, when it seems that nature always breaks it down again?
And what is the point of the wall if neither of them have livestock, anti-wall neighbor wants to know. And should one be concerned about the apple trees eating the pine cones on the other side of the wall? Impossible!
And yet all of the mending and walking together and discussion of the wall is done amicably, demonstrating that good fences do make good neighbors after all.