A Frosty look at a Classic Poem

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A frosty look at a classic poem:
There is something in us all
That loves to build, that loves
To move  rocks from
Scattered resting places and
Create something useful, such as
A fence of the sort that
Makes good neighbors.
Never mind the superficial fact that
One man's land holds pine,
The the other is all apple, and
Neither will disturb the other
With or without a wall between them.
Working together for the common good
We say nothing of apples and pine,
But feel the weight of great granite  stones
Rough in our hands,
Straining our backs, and
Challenging our minds to create
Structure from chaos:
“Here!  That one will go good right here!”
Oh, we know that winter's ice,
Spring's thaw and the
Hunters' search for rabbits
“To please the yelping dogs”
Will surely destroy our labor's fruit,
But we seek and find  deeper harvest:
Working, sweating, fitting, building,
Cursing “Damn!  That one
Smashed my finger!  Same as
Last year!” and
Laughing together, all just to
Say what rough uneducated
Hard-working rough-handed men
Say with the language the work which
Is their life:
There is something in us all that
Must grasp granite rocks
Of one sort or another, and
Struggle to move them over
Life's rough ground
To  new resting places.

The men I  knew who
Moved such rocks in the
Brutally rough rocky
Vermont countryside
Which was their home
Did not leap to
Bump their chests together, nor say
“I love you,” but knew that
There is something in us all
We know only when
Working together even in the
Useless task of protecting
Pine from apple, and
Apple from pine.
We build a wall of one sort while
Tearing down another which may
Slowly grow between us unless
Every year we share
Our love for
This land,
These rocks,
These trees,
Our heritage,
Our strength and
Each other.
Dedicated to Sterling McKeighon
West Pawlet Vermont hard-scrabble
Dairy farmer, Summer, 1958