I Build Walls: poem - Entry #15

I build walls:
walls that protect,
walls that shield,
walls that say I shall not yield
or reveal
who I am or how I fell.

I build walls:
walls that hide,
walls that cover what's inside,
walls that stare or smile or look away,
silent lies,
 walls that even block my eyes
from the tears I might have cried.

I build walls:
walls that never let me
truly touch
those I love so very much.
Walls that need to fall!
Walls meant to be fortresses
are prisoners after all.
Source: http://rhlschool.com retrieved originally on April 8, 2003

Analysis

A person may decide to build walls around his/her feelings because s/he is suffering and resolves not to let other people know about it, or in order to prevent from further damage. Some other people, on the other hand, may decide to build figurative walls because they are detached from the society they live in. They are happy about being alone, are lonely people, or have issues socialising, so they stop from doing it altogether.

Personally I do not believe I am a person who usually builds such walls, but I have met people who do so. In case I get in a bad mood or moody I probably try to hide those feeling and mask them, so as to protect others and not regret something I carelessly said. 

The narrator does not believe that having these walls is always a good idea. By the end of the second verse, it reads that "silent lies" and by the end of the third "walls that need to fall", thus, showing that walls are not beneficial all the time.

In my opinion everyone needs to build walls every now and then, so as to restrain oneself from doing regrettable actions or words, or so as not to make people worry about us unnecessarily. But having walls up all the time, every day is not a good thing either. They should only be raised when necessary, and allow us to be free.