“After Apple-Picking” Symbols
- Apples. Apples appear throughout the poem as symbols of creative ideas or the products (that is, the "fruits") of one’s labor.
- Sleep. On a literal level, this poem explores what it’s like to fall asleep—the way people drift in and out of consciousness and how thoughts seem to come into the ...
- Ladder. ...
Full Answer
What is the theme of the poem after apple picking?
‘After Apple-Picking’ by Robert Frost begins with an apple-picker’s thoughts after a day of work. The poem goes on to explore themes of life and death. Having picked apples throughout the day, he is tired now. His day’s work is over, but the task of apple-picking is not yet complete.
What is the rhyme scheme of after apple-picking?
The poem is set after the speaker has finished a seemingly ordinary day of apple picking, and is now halfway to sleep and dreaming. While many of Frost's poems use strict iambic pentameter and a formal rhyme scheme, "After Apple-Picking" defies such regular rhythm and rhyme as it mimics the often disorienting process of falling asleep.
What does the ladder symbolize in the poem apples?
Apples, the symbol of life and the downfall of life, are the topic of the poem from start to finish. The ladder is one of the first symbols encountered in the poem. At the beginning of the poem, the ladder is pointed “Toward heaven still.”
What is the length of the line “after apple picking”?
“After Apple-Picking” is basically iambic, and mostly in pentameter, but line-length variants abound. Line 1 , for example, is long by any standard. Line 32 is very short: one foot.
What is the meaning of After Apple-Picking poem?
'After Apple-Picking' by Robert Frost begins with an apple-picker's thoughts after a day of work. The poem goes on to explore themes of life and death. Having picked apples throughout the day, he is tired now. His day's work is over, but the task of apple-picking is not yet complete.
Is After Apple-Picking about death?
Robert Frost's poem, “After Apple-Picking” is a depiction of an individual's realization that death is looming near. And due to this self-discovery, the individual looks back upon his/her life with disappointment and regret. The speaker is overwhelmed with life and uncertain about life itself.
What does the woodchuck mean in After Apple-Picking?
A woodchuck is a groundhog, and we all know from a certain famous Bill Murray movie that groundhogs hibernate in the winter and then wake up on February 2nd – unless they are being cranky. The woodchuck is an expert in hibernation, so it could say whether the speaker is about to go into hibernation.
What is the wood pile about?
'The Wood-Pile' by Robert Frost describes a speaker's journey through the woods to a strangely placed, and abandoned woodpile. The poem begins with the speaker stating that he is making his way through a frozen swamp. He isn't sure the journey is a good idea, but he is committed to making it.
What does Essence of winter sleep mean?
It is night time, and the speaker is very tired. He compares his approaching sleep to an 'essence' or smell that wafts through the winter night.
What is the speaker state of mind in After Apple-Picking?
The speaker's overwhelming state of mind in "After Apple-Picking" is tired and reflective. He was already tired in the beginning of the day when he took a drink and is even more exhausted after a long day spent picking apples.
What is the theme of the poem "After Apple Picking"?
‘After Apple-Picking’ by Robert Frost begins with an apple-picker’s thoughts after a day of work. The poem goes on to explore themes of life and death. Having picked apples throughout the day, he is tired now. His day’s work is over, but the task of apple-picking is not yet complete.
What is after apple picking?
It is a nature- lyric depicting the experience of an apple-picker who is tired after the day’s work and falls asleep in the lap of dreams about his task. It may be regarded as a charming idyll ‘dusted over with something uncanny’, and containing a fine bland of illusion and reality.
Is North of Boston a narrative poem?
Included in the volume North of Boston, it is chiefly neither a narrative poem in blank verse nor a dramatic dialogue as most of the poems in this volume are. It is a nature- lyric depicting the experience of an apple-picker who is tired after the day’s work and falls asleep in the lap of dreams about his task.
Is there a barrel that has not yet been filled with apples?
Beside the ladder, there is a barrel that has not yet been filled with apples and can accommodate some more. A few apples may still have been left on the branches of the tree unpicked or yet to be picked. That means the task of apple-picking is incomplete. But, as the speaker tells, he is fed up with or tired of apple-picking ...
What is the poem after picking apples about?
This is Robert Frost in 1946 , in an essay for The Atlantic Monthly. “After Apple-Picking” is about picking apples, but with its ladders pointing “ [t]oward heaven still,” with its great weariness, and with its rumination on the harvest, the coming of winter, and inhuman sleep, the reader feels certain that the poem harbors some “ulteriority.”.
What is the harvest of apples?
The harvest of apples can be read as a harvest of any human effort —study, laying bricks, writing poetry, etc.—and this poem looks at the end of the harvest. The sequence and tenses of the poem are a bit confusing and lead one to wonder what is dreamed, what is real, and where the sleep begins.
How many times does sleep appear in the poem?
Sleep is, in fact, all over the poem; the word appears six times. But the way it is delivered here, the last rhyme is masterful. Heap first rhymes internally with sleep, then again internally with sleep, and then again, and only pairs up with the end-word sleep in the poem’s last line.
Is the speaker tired at the end of apple picking?
It’s understandable that the speaker should be tired at the end of a day’s apple picking. But the poem says that the speaker was well on his way to sleep before he dropped the sheet of ice, and this presumably occurred in the morning. The speaker has tried and failed to “rub the strangeness” from his sight.
Is "after apple picking" a rhyme scheme?
This is a rhyming poem that follows no preordained rhyme scheme. “After Apple-Picking” is basically iambic, and mostly in pentameter, but line-length variants abound. Line 1 , for example, is long by any standard. Line 32 is very short: one foot.
What is the meaning of the poem "After Apple Picking"?
Share Link. "After Apple Picking" is a poem about life and death, the veil that separates these, and the connection between death and sleep. Its key symbol, the apple, is one which has represented life in many cultures—the apple recalls the Norse golden apples of Idun, which the gods must eat in order to remain young and immortal.
What is after apple picking?
"After Apple Picking" is a poem about life and death, the veil that separates these, and the connection between death and sleep.
