ABSTRACT
In Frost’s associations to the poem, the reference to Coney Island emphasizes the emptiness of the place then as opposed to the disreputable, noisy honky-tonk Frost and his friend saw at the time of Frost’s reminiscence. Feeding plays the crucial role in developing the infant beyond this phase. Language serves Frost as an agent both of fantasy and of mastery. Frost’s language projects human attributes onto the inanimate world. Frost’s irony served him to achieve a fearful, guarded stand-off against the kind of parallel but hostile person represented by the man on the other side of the wall to be mended. Frost treated his own feelings in the same balancing way he treated readers and other adversaries, developing an almost uncanny ability to balance seriousness with humor.
