Mending Wall

The Two Walls in Mending Wall It is arguable that the self-righteous speaker of "Mending Wall" is himself obsessively committed to wall building, far more intractably and instinctively committed than his cliché-bound neighbor. While the speaker of "Mending Wall" justifiably castigates his unthinking neighbor and is himself far more aware of the powers of language for good and for ill, he is nonetheless caught up, ironically perhaps, in the same actual task, wall building, …

…the persona’s apple trees is used to explain to the reader just how much this persona undermines his neighbour. “my apple trees will never get across, and eat the cones under his pines”. Even though this comment is light-hearted and almost humorous it gives the reader the impression that the persona thinks of himself as a more intelligent person than his neighbour thus feeling that he needs to explain why the wall is unnecessary