After Apple-Picking

After Apple-Picking by Robert Frost is a fascinating poem. I've casually listened to it and read it at least a dozen times.  It has a wonderful flow to it. I only know a little bit about Frost, but what I know is that his poems are never what they seem to be at first glance.


It feels like in this poem he may be talking about looking back over one's life with the coming of death. It seems like there are little hints that it is about coming death throughout the whole piece,

Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.

Both winter and sleep (or drowsing off) could be referring to death.
The apples that the speaker has picked could be accomplishments or maybe just segments of life. So when he talks about apples that hit the ground, "No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble" he could be talking about wasted opportunities, and maybe when he talks about them being turned into cider he is talking about learning from mistakes.


There is so much to this poem, lurking beneath the surface. I'm excited to dive into a little more.




1.) How is the title of the poem working?  What information is it giving?  How would the poem be different with a different title? 


The title "After Apple-Picking" launches the reader directly into the heart of the poem. Without the title the poem would have the same overall meaning because it doesn't give us any information that the poem itself doesn't eventually give us. However, the title lets us know the setting of the poem before we start reading it. Without the title it would take a little while before we knew what was going on.  


2.) List all of words you don’t know, or think you don’t know.  Look them up in the dictionary.  Write them down.

• Hoary
• Overtired (honorable mention, because it is a great word)

3.) Read the poem out loud.  What sounds do you notice in the poem?  Is there rhyme?  Are there any repeated sounds?  Write down the sounds you hear at work in the poem.


This is a tough question to me because of the overwhelming amount of repeated sounds within this poem. But there does not seem to be a definite pattern. There are lots of rhymes at the end of lines, but it seems almost chaotic. He even puts rhymes within the same line a few times. Maybe this scattered rhyme system is another way he saying something about life. If that is the case, perhaps he is suggesting that although life doesn't always follow a predictable pattern, that doesn't mean that it doesn't have rhythm. 


He also uses a large variety of rhymes. He doesn't come back to any of his rhyming pairs. For instance he rhymes "still" and "fill" and never revisits the "ill" rhyme. Perhaps this too speaks to part of what is beautiful about life. 


4.) What is literally happening in the poem?  Write a paragraph describing what is going on.  Where is this happening?  Who are the people in the poem?

On the surface the poem is about a lone apple-picker, thinking about his day of apple-picking. He talks about how much the the "harvest [he himself] desired" has worn him out. It even seems that this harvest that he had wished for is now going to haunt his dreams, "One can see what will trouble/ This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is."

5.) What are the images in the poem?  List five images you see in detail.  What do you know about them?  How is the poem using imagery?



This poem is filled to the brim with vivid imagery. Here are five:


1.

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree Toward heaven still,

2.

I cannot rub the strangeness from my sightI got from looking through a pane of glassI skimmed this morning from the drinking troughAnd held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.

3.

My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.

4.

There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.

5.

Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

Frost uses imagery to add depth to this poem. Every image seems to be a metaphor for something. I feel like I could spend a really long time diving into the possible meanings of all these images. However, the one the baffles me most is the woodchuck. On the surface he is saying that if the woodchuck were around he could tell him whether or not he was about to hibernate (by the way, I had to look up whether or not woodchucks actually hibernate) or just sleep through the night like normal. I'm not sure what that means on a deeper level, though. What is the woodchuck? Is hibernation being related to death - "long sleep?" And why isn't the woodchuck around? Maybe he's already hibernating. 

6.) What do you know about the speaker?  List ten facts you can infer (the If-Then game).

1.

The speaker has mixed feelings about harvesting all those apples. On the one hand he cherished each apple. On the other hand they haunt him. Even when he wants to rest he can't help thinking about the apples left unpicked, the barrels left unfilled, and the apples in the cider heap.

2.

The speaker may have bitten off more than he could chew,

For I have had too muchOf apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.

3.
He wishes he could have accomplished more.


4.
It seems that although he is overtired he doesn't feel worthy of the rest he desires because of the parts of the job left unfinished.


5.
He seems conflicted about the fallen fruit. He says they,

Went surely to the cider-apple heapAs of no worth.

When he says, "As of no worth" it seems to me like saying, "as if they have no worth," which to implies that they really do have worth, even though they are being treated as if they don't. Their worth comes from their redemption from apples to cider, which is to say that they still have worth as apples.


6.
He is too tired to continue working or pursue his dreams, but he is not too tired to worry about what he should have done.


7.
He seems to question the way he sees the world when he talks about how he can't shake the strangeness that came from looking through a piece of ice. Looking through the ice seems to represent how he sees things, and he lets it break.






7.) Write a paragraph describing the tone of the poem.  Remember, tone is the speaker’s attitude toward his/her subject.  Most attitudes in poetry will be complex, i.e. more that one attitude.  List 10 words you think helps set this tone.



The tone is absolutely complex. The speaker is conflicted. He is haunted both by the work he completed and the work he failed to finish. Even though he wanted the abundant harvest he received, he seems to battle with whether or not it was what he really wanted in the end. 


Ten Tone Words:


1. Winter
2. Sleep
3. Hoary
4. Overtired
5. Touch
6. Cherished
7. Ten thousand thousand
8. Worth
9. Break
10. Appear/Disappear


8.) Does the poem have a formal structure?  If not, what effect does the lack of structure have?  If so, what effect does the structure have on the meaning of the poem?


I guess I'm not really sure what formal structure in a poem looks like. But I would say that it seems to be structured, although I can't see a discernible pattern. The structure makes it easy to read. The lack of stanzas is interesting. There are distinct thoughts, but they all run together. This creates a dream-like effect.


9.) Where does the tension lie in the poem?  Poetic tension can come in many forms. Is there any conflict in the plot/action of the poem?  Do images form a tension? Does the speaker and/or tone create tension in the poem?  List three poetic tensions you see at work.



1.
There is an overall tension going on within the the speaker. He doesn't know how to feel about the job he has done. He is haunted by what he has and hasn't done,

And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.

2.
There is tension in the imagery when he talks about his vision of the world,

I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.

To me, there is a tension between melting and breaking. "Breaking" sounds so much more violent and quick, where "melting" sounds like something that would happen over a long time. But I suppose that melting could be a form of breaking. Perhaps when men break it in this melting fashion. It doesn't happen all at once. Maybe this is a poem about a man breaking.


3.
There is the consistent tension between the desire for peaceful sleep and the knowledge that it will not come,

One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.

10.)Are their any images, phrases, words, and sounds in the poem that you can't shake out of your head?  List three that resonate with you.


1. "Overtired"
2. "Pane of glass"/ "Hoary grass"
3. "Cherish in hand"




This poem has so much depth, I feel like I could spend many, many hours exploring all the possible meanings. During this short excursion I have been surprised by the many layers this poem has. It seems to both about the beauty and the frustration of life's imperfections.