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摘要： From this poem， we can see some of Frost’s poetic language style and one of his themes: the relationship between humans. This paper is an attempt to reveal Frost's style of simple beauty through rhetoric analysis. The poet uses simple rhetorical devices like metaphor， simile， and repetition to convey much profound implication and provoke thinking. Rhetoric devices partly illustrate Frost’s genius in making his poems simple in language but profound in idea.

關鍵詞：Frost Mending Wall simple beauty rhetoric analysis

【中圖分類號】I106 【文獻標識碼】A 【文章編號】1002-2139（2009）-15-0017-1

Poetry has been the most beautiful mode of communication since language was first recorded. Robert Frost's poems are extremely beautiful but deep in that he has a great understanding of the human nature. In his poems， he uses familiar subjects， like nature， people doing daily things and simple language to express his thought. His poems may be easy to read， but not necessarily easy to understand. Almost all of Frost’s poems have a secret message hiding behind its simplistic appearance.

Certainly an essential element of Frost's style is his rhetorical devices， both at the lexical level and at the syntactic level. To Frost， metaphor is really what poetry is all about. He is notably a poet of metaphors more than anything else. We may as well hear directly from the poet. Frost said，“ Poetry begins in trivial metaphors， pretty metaphors，‘grace metaphors，’ and goes on to the profoundest thinking that we have. Poetry provides the one permissible way of saying one thing and meaning another.

In“Mending Wall” he likens the rocks that he and his neighbor are carefully re-stacking and re-balancing to loaves and balls. With that he adds the poem a sense of humor and then by saying “We have to use a spell to make them balance: stay where you are until our backs are turned!” The poet at the same time adds a sense of mystery to the poem， making the otherwise boring and monotonous act of piling up a wall just readable and enjoyable. Meanwhile， the poet indicates that their game-like work of mending the wall is merely an irrational task because to set up barriers between oneself and the outside world is certainly unreasonable and unwise. It is obvious that this wall- mending event is a metaphor for the relationship between two people and the wall is a metaphor for the mental barricade that separates them. The wall， instead of being composed of rocks， is built， by degrees， of tradition and conventions， of individual habits， upbringing and environment. In the poem， the narrator “I” seems to think that they don't really need the walls， but his neighbor assures him that “good walls make good neighbors”. The wall makes the neighbors comfortable about their boundaries for the wall can provide people a sense of safety and preserve their individual dignity and identity. However， it hinders communication and mutual understanding as well.

Frost also employed the rhetorical device of simile.” In each hand， like an old-stone savage armed.” This simile likens the neighbor to a savage of the old-stone age. His neighbor， being conservative and stubborn， refuses to change his old-fashioned belief that “good fences make good neighbors”. Satisfied to confine himself behind his personal wall， he never converses with his neighbor but repeats the aphorism he learned from his father， as if to keep from something original. A savage of the old-stone age is a vivid depiction of the rigid neighbor.

Frost used the poetic device of apostrophe， a figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present. In the poem， speaking to the stones that make up the barrier， he says， “Stay where you are until our backs are turned!” Here， by speaking to the stones， Frost creates a nave setting， in conformity with his simple daily style. At the same time the line reveals a humorous tone. By using this technique Frost humanizes inanimate object— the stones. Apostrophe gave Frost the ability to be freer with what he wrote. It made his poem more effective and more enjoyable to read.

Repetition is another important rhetorical device used in this poem. The most noteworthy repetition in this poem is the two verse lines of thematic importance: “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall”， and “Good fences make good neighbors”. These two sentences are not only repeated but also occupy special positions in the poem， being the first line and the last respectively， which easily catches the readers’ attention and inspires their thinking and understanding. Then， they may naturally come to the conclusion that these two sentences just reflect these two opposite attitudes: one “that doesn’t love a wall” and the other that loves it， and the chief concern of the poem is to present a conflict between two opposite attitudes towards a wall. By this repetition， the contrast between the two attitudes towards the wall becomes sharper and more attractive to the reader， and thereby raises this central contrast and conflict to the climactic and thematic height. At the same time， by using syntactical inversion (“something there is...”)， “something” has been shifted from its normal place in the sentence and put in the beginning of the sentence. Hence the emphasis is thrown on it， just as Northrop Frye states: “the question whether good fences do or do not make good neighbors: the (central) theme is the identity of the ‘something’ with which the poem begins. We are not told definitely what it is， except that it is not elves， but whatever it is， the contrast of the two human attitudes towards the wall ... radiate from it as the center of the poem. ” “Good fences make good neighbors” is the other line that carries thematic importance. This five-word maxim forms a well-balanced basic subject-verb-object syntax， which is reinforced by the repeated adjective “good”， thus forming a sharp contrast with the first line.

In the poem “Mending Wall”， Frost did not employ lots of rhetorical devices， however， every of them is properly devised and achieves the intended effects. However， this is just the unique style of Frost: simple in language and rhetorical devices but profound in thinking and meaning.

The simple beauty of Frost’s poem is something one can relax with， and enjoy quietly， feeling like viewing an idyllic picture of natural landscape. He made his poems seem effortless by using colloquial and direct expression and conversational rhythms. The words he uses are those you would use in everyday conversation， and the subjects are those come from daily life of ordinary people， about famers， about small rural events， such as mending a wall. However， this rustic simplicity is deceptive. He conveys his message by implication， explores complexity through triviality. Mending Wall is one of the best-known poems for its profound life philosophy， from which， we can see some of Frost’s unique poetic style and his themes: the relationship between humans and man’s endless pursuit of mutual understanding and trust， peace and freedom， the ideal of perfect harmony with oneself ， with others and with nature.

參考文獻：

［1］ Hamilton， Ian. Robert Frost: Selected Poems ［M］.Harmondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd.， 1975.

［2］Northrop Frye， Literary Criticism the Aims and Methods of Scholarship in Modern L languages and Literatures New York， 1963

［3］ “Tension and Conflict in Mending Wall” 123help me< http://www.123helpme.net/view.aspid=2786 >

［4］ “The Poetics of Robert Frost - Examples” Carole Thompson

The Friends of Robert Frost 2001. .

［5］吳定柏 1998《美國文學大綱》上海:上海外語教育出版社.