Pat Mora's "Fences" is set in a Spanish-speaking tourist town popular with vacationers. The poem contrasts the restricted, hardscrabble lives of the locals with the carefree privileges of the rich tourists. Just as a forbidding cactus fence divides the young speaker from the sunbathers, the metaphorical fences constructed by capitalism and inequality divide one economic class from the other. The poem appears in Mora's 1991 collection Communion.

• Read the full text of “Fences”

• “Fences” Summary

• “Fences” Themes

  • 

    Class, Privilege, and Inequality

    Where this theme appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-19

• Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Fences”

  • Lines 1-3

    Mouths full of ...
    ... full of dollars.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 4-7

    Every morning my ...
    ... away all footprints.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 8-10

    I peek through ...
    ... arms and legs

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 11-13

    while their children ...
    ... white, mango yellow.

    

    

    

    

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  • Lines 14-19

    Once my little ...
    ... It’s their beach."

    

    

    

    

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• “Fences” Symbols

  • 

    Smoothing the Beach

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 4-7: “Every morning my brother makes / the cool beach new for them. / With a wooden board he smooths / away all footprints.”
  • 

    The Fence

    Where this symbol appears in the poem:

    • Lines 8-13: “I peek through the cactus fence / and watch the women rub oil / sweeter than honey into their arms and legs / while their children jump waves / or sip drinks from long straws, / coconut white, mango yellow.”

• “Fences” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language

  • Assonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where assonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 5: “cool,” “new”
    • Line 6: “smooths”
    • Line 12: “sip drinks,” “long straws”
    • Line 13: “coconut,” “mango yellow”
    • Line 15: “ran,” “across,” “hot,” “sand”

  • Asyndeton

    

    

    

    

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    Where asyndeton appears in the poem:

    • Line 13: “coconut white, mango yellow.”

  • Consonance

    

    

    

    

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    Where consonance appears in the poem:

    • Line 1: “full,” “laughter”
    • Line 2: “turistas,” “to,” “tall hotel”
    • Line 3: “suitcases,” “full,” “dollars”
    • Line 4: “morning my,” “makes”
    • Line 6: “With,” “wooden board”
    • Line 8: “peek,” “cactus”
    • Line 9: “watch,” “women”
    • Line 11: “while,” “waves”
    • Line 12: “sip,” “ drinks,” “straws”
    • Line 13: “coconut white”
    • Line 14: “little sister”
    • Line 15: “barefoot,” “hot”
    • Line 16: “taste”
    • Line 17: “My mother”

  • Enjambment

    

    

    

    

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    Where enjambment appears in the poem:

    • Lines 2-3: “hotel / with”
    • Lines 4-5: “makes / the”
    • Lines 6-7: “smooths / away”
    • Lines 8-9: “fence / and”
    • Lines 9-10: “oil / sweeter”
    • Lines 10-11: “legs / while”
    • Lines 11-12: “waves / or”
    • Lines 14-15: “sister / ran”
    • Lines 15-16: “sand / for”
    • Lines 17-18: “ocean, / "No.”

  • Juxtaposition

    

    

    

    

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    Where juxtaposition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 1-7
    • Lines 11-16

  • Repetition

    

    

    

    

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    Where repetition appears in the poem:

    • Lines 18-19: “"No. No. It’s their beach. / It’s their beach."”

  • Simile

    

    

    

    

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    Where simile appears in the poem:

    • Line 17: “My mother roared like the ocean,”

• “Fences” Vocabulary

  Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.

  • Turistas
  • The Cactus Fence
  • (Location in poem: Lines 2-2: “the / turistas / come to the tall hotel”)

• Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Fences”

  • Form

  • Meter

  • Rhyme Scheme

• “Fences” Speaker

• “Fences” Setting

• Literary and Historical Context of “Fences”

• More “Fences” Resources

  • External Resources

    • More Poems and a Biography — Read more about Mora's life and work at the Poetry Foundation.

    • The Cost of Cheap Tourism — An article that looks at the effects of tourism on some of Mexico's coastal cities.

    • Pat Mora Interviewed — The poet talks about her life, work, and Mexican heritage. 

    • Latinx Poetry in the U.S. — Poems (and essays) by American writers who have roots in Latin American countries and cultures.

    • Mora on the Art of Poetry — The poet talks about poetry's special qualities.

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