'Deviled by stone'

Robert Frost’s poetry gave New England’s stone walls an almost mythological significance. He wrote about this stone wall, on his farm in Derry, N.H., in his famous poem “Mending Wall.”Credit: top: Library of Congress/New York World-Telegram & Su…

Robert Frost’s poetry gave New England’s stone walls an almost mythological significance. He wrote about this stone wall, on his farm in Derry, N.H., in his famous poem “Mending Wall.”

Credit: top: Library of Congress/New York World-Telegram & Sun Collection; bottom: CCA 3.0.

“Stone upon stone

this weathered wall of stone

was built by men deviled by stone'

from poor fields yielding mostly stone’’

— From “A Farm in the Green Mountains (Thinking of Robert Frost)’’, by Dave Etter