North of Boston

North of Boston By Robert Frost North of Boston is a 1914 poetry collection by Robert Frost. It includes two of his most famous poems, "Mending Wall" and "After Apple-Picking". Most of the poems resemble short dramas or dialogues. North of Boston was published by David Nutt. Following its success, Henry Holt and Company republished Frost's first book, A Boy's Will, in 1915. The New York Times said in a review, "In republishing his first book after his second, Mr. Robert Frost has undertaken the difficult task of competing with himself." Like many of the poems in North of Boston, "Mending Wall" narrates a story drawn from rural New England. The narrator, a New England farmer, contacts his neighbor in the spring to rebuild the stone wall between their two farms. As the men work, the narrator questions the purpose of a wall "where it is we do not need the wall". He notes twice in the poem that "something there is that doesn't love a wall", but his neighbor replies twice with the proverb, "Good fences make good neighbors".