The speaker in Robert Frost's Mending Wall talks to his neighbor about fences. The speaker's perspective is revealed in the first line of the poem: something there is that doesn't love a wall. But the neighbor disagrees. In fact, twice in the poem, the neighbor quotes the old proverb: good fences make good neighbors.
The speaker in the poem muses about that old proverb. He seems to suggest that such a view is dated and old-fashioned. Even if they served a purpose in the past, the poem seems to suggest, walls aren't necessary any more.
The neighbor, however, won't be dissuaded. He is settled in his view: good fences make good neighbors.
Honestly, I'm not sure which view is right.
But I will say this: seeing two huge gray wolves lumber across the field behind my house this week makes me think seriously about fences and walls and boundaries.
What I saw the other day, though, wasn't in a fairy tale. When I finally mentioned what I had seen to a few long-time locals, I was assured that, yes, wolves are around . . . and that the harsh winter would force them to range further and further for food. Even more, I was told that areas populated by livestock and chickens would be especially attractive to wolves.
Of course, both the stature and the ferocity of the animals that I saw the other day have grown substantially in my mind over the past few days. What I saw was plenty impressive. With each telling of the story, however, the animals have gotten bigger and meaner and scarier. In a couple of days, I'll probably be telling people that they were walking on their hind legs and that they looked like werewolves. They didn't, of course, but it's easy to exaggerate when you have a good story and when people are willing to listen.
I'll try as hard as I can to stick to the truth. I know what I saw. And I don't really need to embellish the story much at all. The wolves were huge. And I know that no fence in the world could probably keep them out.
All the same, as I watched them pass, I thought an awful lot about walls and fences and boundaries.
When I moved to Michigan seven years ago, it never crossed my mind that I would be living among the animals. But where I live now is a virtual zoo. A zoo without cages, of course. And that makes things very, very interesting sometimes.
Are there wolves in the lower peninsula? I'm pretty sure the answer is yes. At the very least, a couple of them came by for a visit just the other day.