Fences and Between Fences: Cultural, Historical, And Smithsonian Perspectives (Essay‪)‬

Along with a few Shakespearean gems, the commentary on fences from Robert Frost's "Mending Wall" may be the best-known poetic icon in contemporary American culture. As Frost and his neighbor mend their common wall in a New England spring ritual, the neighbor twice trumpets: "good fences make good neighbors." The first declaration sets out a guiding principle of the neighbor's conservative worldview. Despite some gentle and subtle probing by Frost, the neighbor "likes having thought of it so well, he says again 'Good fences make good neighbors.'" Frost's rejoinder is less well known. It captures the opposing position, profoundly important in understanding the significance of walls and fences in world and American cultural and historical debates, disputes, and physical conflicts. In response to his neighbor, Frost reflects,