Before he would build a wall the speaker in 'Mending wall' would want to know: A: What he was walling in or walling out. B: Who might be...

The correct answer to this question is "A."  The narrator says he would want to know,

What I was walling in or out,

And to whom I was like to give offense (lines 33-34).

The idea here is that the narrator thinks that walls are not a good idea unless they serve a particular and practical purpose and are not going to offend someone. This wall offends nature itself, as the poem begins with the...

The correct answer to this question is "A."  The narrator says he would want to know,

What I was walling in or out,

And to whom I was like to give offense (lines 33-34).

The idea here is that the narrator thinks that walls are not a good idea unless they serve a particular and practical purpose and are not going to offend someone. This wall offends nature itself, as the poem begins with the narrator saying "Something there is that doesn't love a wall" (line 1). He goes on to note the foolishness of this particular wall, since there are no cows to be penned in by it and his and his neighbor's trees are not going to encroach upon each other. This spring ritual of mending this wall, which is purposeless, merely reinforces his ideas about walls, a very negative view of them.