Read the excerpt from "Mending Wall." Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder If I could put a notion in his head: “ Why do they make good neighbours? Isn’t it Where there are cows? But here there are no cows. Before I built a wall I’d ask to know What I was walling in or walling out, And to whom I was like to give offence. Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, That wants it down.” I could say “Elves” to him, But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather He said it for himself. What is the speaker’s mood in this excerpt?
The speaker’s mood is playful. He describes spring as bringing out “mischief” in him and imagines teasing his neighbor by suggesting that elves might be responsible for knocking down the wall. His lighthearted plan to get the neighbor to say the idea himself shows playfulness, rather than unhappiness or childishness.
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