Quiz

Mending Wall

Robert Frost

1. 1. Which of the following best describes the overall structure of 'Mending Wall'?

   A Shakespearean sonnet divided into three quatrains and a coupletA blank verse poem with no regular rhyme scheme but a consistent iambic pentameter baseA series of rhyming couplets organized into two equal stanzasA free verse meditation with irregular line lengths and no metrical pattern

2. 2. The speaker says the neighbor 'moves in darkness as it seems to me.' What does this image primarily suggest?

   The neighbor works only at night to avoid the spring heatThe neighbor is morally corrupt and secretly maliciousThe neighbor is intellectually and spiritually unenlightened, bound by inherited habitThe neighbor lives deep in a shaded forest far from sunlight

3. 3. What is the central thematic tension the poem explores?

   The conflict between rural and urban ways of life in New EnglandThe tension between unquestioned tradition and independent critical thoughtThe struggle between human labor and the destructive force of natureThe rivalry between two farmers competing for the same land

4. 4. Who or what does the speaker identify as primarily responsible for the wall's damage—beyond the hunters?

   Frost and ice acting beneath the groundTrespassers crossing the property lineElves working mischief in the nightFalling trees from the neighboring pine stand

5. 5. The simile comparing the neighbor to 'an old-stone savage armed' primarily functions to do which of the following?

   Praise the neighbor's physical strength and rural work ethicSuggest the neighbor embodies a primitive, unreflective adherence to customImply the neighbor is a dangerous and threatening figureHumorously celebrate the playful, game-like quality of the wall-mending ritual

6. 6. What is the speaker's tone when he calls wall-mending 'just another kind of out-door game'?

   Bitterly sarcastic, mocking the neighbor's devotion to the ritualGently ironic and slightly dismissive, undercutting the solemnity of the taskEnthusiastically celebratory of neighborly cooperationDeeply nostalgic for a vanishing rural tradition

7. 7. The phrase 'Good fences make good neighbours' appears twice in the poem. What is the effect of this repetition?

   It shows the neighbor gradually convincing the speaker to accept the wall's valueIt reveals the neighbor's lack of original thought and his reliance on inherited authorityIt creates a call-and-response structure that unifies the two speakers' perspectivesIt signals that the speaker himself has come to endorse the neighbor's view by the poem's end

8. 8. Which comprehension detail best explains why the speaker believes the wall is unnecessary between these two properties?

   Both men agreed years ago to remove the wall but never completed the taskThe speaker's apple trees pose no threat to the neighbor's pine treesThe wall has grown so damaged it no longer marks any clear boundaryTown law no longer requires boundary walls between residential properties

9. 9. The speaker wishes the neighbor would arrive at the question 'Why do they make good neighbours?' on his own rather than being prompted. What technique does this moment illustrate?

   Apostrophe, as the speaker addresses an abstract idea directlyDramatic irony, since the reader sees what the neighbor cannotSocratic reticence, withholding a leading question to encourage self-discoveryStream of consciousness, mimicking unfiltered interior thought

10. 10. The poem opens and closes with the phrase 'Something there is that doesn't love a wall.' What is the primary effect of this framing device?

    It creates a circular structure that emphasizes the cyclical, unresolved nature of the poem's central questionIt signals that the poem will ultimately conclude that walls should be abolishedIt establishes nature as the poem's true speaker rather than a human narratorIt mirrors the neighbor's repetition of his saying, suggesting both men are equally unreflective
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