The Poem “After Apple-Picking “ written by Robert Frost explores the thoughts of a passionate man whose life has been devoted to his life’s work of apple picking. The poem has a lack of fulfillment due to the speaker who feels as if he has not reached what he wanted to accomplish. The title alludes to many religious texts and Robert Frost writes the reality of this speaker as being dream like and unfulfilled.
The title “After Apple-Picking” goes into this idea that is emphasized by the word “after”. It gives a feeling of emptiness that there is nothing to look forward to. It makes the reader think that there s nothing more to be done; it raises the question, what happens after apple picking? As the reader shifts his attention to “Apple-Picking” it is understood that the connotation for the word “Apple” includes sweetness, juiciness and an idea of nature. Positive connotations go into this word and more include health. The Idea of the Apple also goes with some religious connotations, with the idea of Adam and Eve who took the forbidden fruit.
In the first line of the poem Robert Frost writes, “My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree/ Toward heaven still”(1-2). This is another religious allusion to Genesis 28:12. It explores Jacobs’s ladder, the Idea of both the aspiration to heaven, which is what Jacob was probably aspiring to. But also it refers to the holiness of the land and the idea of that revelation to him about the space he was in becoming a sacred space. The space the narrator is in or the orchard can be seen in the same way, a sacred place or a blessing. It really shows how much this person values the orchard. Lines seven and eight explore the speaker’s tiredness and how the “Essence of winter sleep is on the night” as he is “drowsing off”. The old factory imagery of “The scent of apples” serves to stimulate these memories that he is going to go into. Looking into the connotation of words such as “Essence” we see that it is the most refined. The narrator is in a state where he is going into eternal sleep.
The first six lines explore the idea of the lack of fulfillment and thereby potential for fulfillment and an aspiration to have that completion. The speaker describes the evening after his last ever after apple picking. In this description there’s a few images that hint at this lack of fulfillment. One of those images are “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 bough “(3-5). These sentences symbolize that the narrator was not quite finished yet, that in his life there were something things left unsettled. However the speakers states that he is “done with apple-picking”. Later on in the poem this realization is once again stated by the narrator that he is done, he states “For I had too much/ Of apple-picking”(27-28).
Lines nine through thirteen explore this idea of the morning experience as he picks of a sheet of ice from the drinking trough and he looks at the world through this pane of ice. This pane of ice is quite unclear, it’s a lens provided by nature and it also gives an image of a childish filter. An action done by a child as they pick up a pane of glass and see the world in a distorted funny way, and reality becomes surreal. However the pane of ice is also a thing of beauty, it does give a lot of life and looking at the world through it a sheet of ice like this, does give reality a sweeting touch. The image of this pane of ice comes to an abrupt ending because “It melted, and I let it fall and break”(13). But here the speaker recovers from it and moves on with his dream as he upon his way to sleep. There is an interesting syntax choice done by frost, after the words “before it fell”. That fall is represented in the line break, which is drastically shorter. This represents a quick abrupt fall. Frost does this once again later on in the poem when he talks about the ten thousands of apples that he is finding difficult to handle. Again a line break is dramatically shorter following the word “fall”.
Moving on in the poem, the reader finds himself in the characters dreamy sequence. It’s a predicted dream sequence because he is not yet asleep, he states “And I could tell/ what form my dreaming was about to take”(14-15). In this part of the poem where he is about to describe his dream, we get three types of imagery. We have visual imagery in the apples being magnified; we see every “fleck” on them, and all the blossoms. We have tactile imagery of “keeps the ache on my foot”, “keeps the pressure on my foot”, and “I feel the ladder sway”. The last type of imagery is auditory with “The rumbling sound”. However one type of imagery that is missing is oral imagery. The irony in this is that fruit is the primordial topic that is being discussed and if fruit is being talked about the most logical imagery is oral because you do eat the fruit and you do taste and it paints an image. Once again this touches on the lack of fulfillment that the poem seems to explore, the idea that things are not yet finished. This multisensory experience that is being described is the result of continual work with apples for a very long time. Now the person is done with apple picking, they state, “I am overtired/ Of the great harvest I myself desired”(28-29). There is a sense of striving for perfection for fulfillment and that’s what worn him out. Doing what he loved the most made him tired.
Towards the end of the poem the speaker who’s passion for apple picking has became tired and can no longer “cherish in hand, lift down and not let fall”(31). This exhaustion is emphasized the falling of some of the apples. As they hit earth they become bruised, and no matter if we can accept the damage or not it is of “no worth” to “the cider-apple heap”. The speaker resigns to sleep whatever he’s been sleeping through. The speaker closes out the poem by saying, “ The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his/ Long sleep, as I describe it’s coming on/ Or just some human sleep”(41-42). The poem once again leaves the reader with sense of lack of fulfillment, lacking a real sense of resolution. The poem however is a rhyming poem but there is no definitely rhyming pattern, there is an Iambic pentameter but obviously there’s a changing rhythm, which reflects the fading away of the speaker in his dreams. The Iambic pentameter reflects natural speech, the line looks very unaltered with the pace of the poem and this implies the lack of stability as the speaker is when falling asleep.
Although there is a feeling of incompletion that the poem gives off, it is clear that the speaker in the Poem “After Apple-Picking” by Roberts Frost’s had just one regret in his life. The somber mood of the poem is a crucial foundation for laying down what is the base of the speaker’s dreams. These dreams represent the type of person this speaker is. A person who’s profession has led him to endlessly work for the perfect harvest which can represent for readers their ultimate goal in life. An Iambic pentameter reflects the speaker’s true voice and the exhaustion he feels. Though his goal was not reached, as he wanted to he lived his life trying and he loved what he did. Frost is trying to demonstrate sense of urgency to all readers. He is saying that time is limited and that we must go after what we believe will truly make us happy. Even if it’s just something as simple as apple picking.