1509: Something there is that doesn’t love by Armen Davoudian

Summary

The Slowdown: Poetry & Reflection Daily

Episode 1509 — Something there is that doesn’t love by Armen Davoudian

Date: May 6, 2026
Host: Maggie Smith

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Episode Overview

In this reflective episode, host Maggie Smith guides listeners through the theme of boundaries—both physical and emotional—framed by Robert Frost’s iconic poem Mending Wall and a contemporary response poem, Something there is that doesn’t love by Armen Davoudian. Smith explores how these poetic reflections comment on division, unity, and the ongoing struggle with "walls" in both personal and societal settings, particularly in the context of modern political and cultural divides.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Revisiting Robert Frost’s Mending Wall

• [01:06-02:05] Maggie Smith introduces the episode by referencing Mending Wall, highlighting these famous lines:

  “Something there is that doesn’t love a wall…”
  “Good fences make good neighbors.”

• Smith discusses how Mending Wall is often quoted when discussing boundaries—physical walls, fences, and the personal walls we create.

• Emphasizes that while walls are human constructs, nature inevitably erodes them:

  “Fences and walls are human made structures, and they are inevitably eroded by the landscape itself.”
  [02:00, Maggie Smith]

• She poses a central question:

  “And what happens when the boundary between what one person owns and what another person owns falls or fails? Then what?”
  [02:09, Maggie Smith]

Introducing Armen Davoudian’s Response

• [02:10-03:33] Smith sets the stage for Armen Davoudian’s poem, noting its deliberate reference to Mending Wall as a platform to discuss broader divisiveness in the U.S.

  “Today's poem references Mending Wall as a way to talk about divisiveness in our country. The speaker considers that paradox of unity and separation…”
  [02:20, Maggie Smith]

Reading: Something there is that doesn’t love by Armen Davoudian

• [03:34-04:54] Full poem read aloud by Maggie Smith.

• The poem intertwines personal memory, youthful romance, and cultural history with Frost’s imagery (e.g., the Robert Frost Interpretive Trail).

• Touches on difficult topics such as identity, language, and historical trauma (e.g., "Deutsche camp," “undercut trolls out of history…”).

• The poem relates the poet’s personal coming-of-age story during a summer in Middlebury, Vermont, while reflecting on youthful intimacy and the learning of language as a metaphor for understanding self and others.

• Notable lines from the poem:

  “We even fall in love, whispering in the dark of the campus graveyard under the sacred oath of German 101...”
  “The president believes good fences make good neighbors. The roads remain divided, undercuts are in. Something that doesn't love burns on the streets again.”

Reflection on the Poem’s Contemporary Resonance

• [04:55-05:20] Smith implicitly connects the poem’s closing with recent societal tensions and the imagery of division and burning on the streets, suggesting that these issues persist and remain urgent.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On boundary erasure by nature and time:

  “The rocks fall or are worn down by wind and rain, the wood rots or topples.”
  [01:50, Maggie Smith]

• On the lasting ambiguity of boundaries and neighborliness:

  “Good fences make good neighbors.”
  [01:57, Robert Frost via Maggie Smith]
  “But what happens when those boundaries fall or fail?”
  [02:09, Maggie Smith]

• On love and language as connection and separation:

  “Weekends we go to Ripton to hike the Robert Frost Interpretive Trail … a pile of timber forever rotting with the burning of decay, for the world will end in fire and last the wall … Its faded placard reads something there is that doesn’t love.”
  [03:56, Armen Davoudian]

• On persistent division in American life:

  “The president believes good fences make good neighbors. The roads remain divided … Something that doesn’t love burns on the streets again.”
  [04:50, Armen Davoudian]

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Important Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:06 – Maggie Smith introduces Robert Frost’s Mending Wall and its key lines
• 02:10 – Transition to discussion of boundaries and their metaphorical weight
• 03:34 – Full reading of Armen Davoudian’s poem
• 04:55 – Contemporary reflection on the poem’s closing lines and societal context

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Tone & Style

• Maggie Smith’s narration is thoughtful, gentle, and contemplative, inviting listeners to slow down and reflect.
• The poem by Armen Davoudian brings together humor and vulnerability, mixing reminiscing about youth with stark observations about contemporary America.
• The episode’s mood is a blend of nostalgia, introspection, and quiet urgency about the state of connection and division in today’s society.

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Summary

This episode of The Slowdown explores how poetry—both classic and contemporary—can help us interrogate the purpose and consequences of boundaries. By pairing Frost’s Mending Wall with Davoudian’s modern response, Maggie Smith invites listeners into a nuanced dialogue about connection, division, and the enduring human desire for both separation and unity. The episode encourages reflection on how we build, maintain, and ultimately reconsider the walls in our own lives and communities.

Transcript

[A]

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[C]

I'm Maggie Smith and this is the Slowdown. You might be familiar with the famous poem Mending Wall by Robert Frost. The poem describes how the speaker and a neighbor meet to rebuild a stone wall between their properties every spring after winter has done its damage. It begins with these four lines, something there is that doesn't love a wall that sends the frozen ground swell under it, and spills the upper boulders in the sun, and makes gaps even two can pass abreast. And the poem ends, I see him there, bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top in each hand, like an old stone savage, armed, he moves in darkness, as it seems to me, not of woods only and the shade of trees he will not go behind, his father's saying, and he likes having thought of it so well. He says again, good fences make good neighbors. Like one of Frost's other poems, the Road Not Taken, the last bit of Mending Wall, Good Fences Make Good Neighbors, is often quoted and interpreted in various ways. That dialogue is sometimes used to defend the importance of boundaries, not just the literal fences and walls around private property, but the boundaries we draw around ourselves as people. Fences and walls are human made structures, and they are inevitably eroded by the landscape itself. The rocks fall or are worn down by wind and rain, the wood rots or topples. And what happens when the boundary between what one person owns and what another person owns falls or fails? Then what? Today's poem references Mending Wall as a way to talk about divisiveness in our country. The speaker considers that paradox of unity and separation, finding it in more and more places as the years pass. Something There is that Doesn't Love by Armin Davoutian we're in Deutsche camp, which is a tasteless joke, my friend, with the undercut trolls out of history like a limp goldfish pulled out of its bowl. In fact, we're in Middlebury, Vermont, summer of 14, and I vowed to unlearn English for six weeks so I can get more Rilke and an A. But mostly we play soccer shirtless against the shirts, and afterwards we screw as 20 somethings do. We even fall in love, whispering in the dark of the campus graveyard under the sacred oath of German 101 Ich liebe Diech mein Liebling und ich dieck liebe auch. Weekends we go to Ripton to hike the Robert Frost Interpretive Trail. Yes, there's a wood with a road splitting in it, a pile of timber forever rotting with the burning of decay, for the world will end in fire and last the wall. Its faded placard reads something there is that doesn't love. It's 2016. All that is history. Now I know Leben from Leben, but Rilke in German feels like a fish out of water. The president believes good fences make good neighbors. The roads remain divided, undercuts are in. Something that doesn't love burns on the streets again. The Slowdown is a production of American Public Media in partnership with the Poetry Foundation. To get a poem delivered to you daily, go to slowdownshow.org and sign up for our newsletter. And find us on Instagram @downdownshow and blueskylowdownshow.org. Foreign. Hi, it's Maggie. Thanks for listening to the Slowdown. Whether you press play to find calm or vivid inspiration, we're glad you're here. As a public media podcast, we rely on listener support to share these moments of poetry. Please consider donating [e-mail] donate.