Question

mending wall
by robert frost
something there is that doesnt love a wall,
that sends the frozen - ground - swell under it,
and spills the upper boulders in the sun;
and makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
the work of hunters is another thing:
i have come after them and made repair
where they have left not one stone on a stone,
but they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
to please the yelping dogs. the gaps i mean,
no one has seen them made or heard them made,
but at spring mending - time we find them there.
i let my neighbour know beyond the hill;
and on a day we meet to walk the line
and set the wall between us once again.
we keep the wall between us as we go.
to each the boulders that have fallen to each,
and some are loaves and some so nearly balls
we have to use a spell to make them balance:
\stay where you are until our backs are turned!\
we wear our fingers rough with handling them.
oh, just another kind of out - door game,
one on a side. it comes to little more:
there where it is we do not need the wall:
he is all pine and i am apple orchard.
my apple trees will never get across
and eat the cones under his pines, i tell him.
he only says, \good fences make good neighbours.\
spring is the mischief in me, and i wonder
if i could put a notion in his head:
\why do they make good neighbours? isnt it
where there are cows? but here there are no cows.
before i built a wall id ask to know
what i was walling in or walling out,
and to whom i was like to give offence.
why does the neighbor say that \good fences make good neighbours\ in \mending wall\?
he is worried about
people being on his
land.
he doesnt want cows in
his fields.
he does not like the
poems speaker.
he is repeating what his
father used to say.

Explanation:

In the poem "Mending Wall" by Robert Frost, the neighbor repeatedly says "Good fences make good neighbours." The speaker questions the need for the wall as there are no cows (so the neighbor's reason isn't about cows in fields - the speaker says "But here there are no cows"), and there's no indication the neighbor dislikes the speaker (so it's not about not liking the poem's speaker). The neighbor seems to hold onto a traditional view. The line "He only says, 'Good fences make good neighbours.'" with no further elaboration from the neighbor in the poem implies he is repeating what he has heard, likely from his father (a common source of traditional sayings). Also, there's no strong textual support for the neighbor being overly worried about people on his land compared to the weight of the traditional saying aspect.

Answer:

He is repeating what his father used to say.