Adapted from
From Sound & Sense, 8th edition, written by Perrine/Arp, published by Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, p. 28
General Questions for Analysis and Evaluation
“After Apple Picking”
1.
What, if any, is the significance of the title of the poem?
Apples season is usually in the fall, so winter comes after apple picking. Winter is
usually a dull, sad season because of the coldness and no happiness or growth. The title
could be setting up the tone of the poem. In such, the speaker is sad and frustrated.
2.
Who is the speaker? What kind of person is the speaker?
The speaker is a man who works out in the field, apple picking for a living. He is sad, and
unhappy with where he is in life. He has not fulfilled his dream in life. All he has ever
done is picked apples. In the poem, he says he is now done with apple picking and
wished to move on. He is tired of apple-picking.
3.
Is there an identifiable audience for the speaker? What can we know about it (her, him,
or them)?
There is no specific audience.
4.
What is the occasion?
The is no specified occasion.
5.
What is the setting in time (hour, season, century, and political, social, religious beliefs)?
The season in which this poem takes place is near the end of fall; apple picking season.
The time would be in the afternoon or evening. The beginning line mentions Heaven.
6.
What is the setting in place (indoors or out, city or country, land or sea, region, nation,
hemisphere)?
The setting in place is outside in an apple orchard in the country because of how he talks
about the ladder he is on. The orchard is most likely up north, because that is where
apples are commonly grown in colder weather.
7.
What is the central purpose of the poem? (arouse emotion, provoke thought, tell a story,
amuse).
The purpose of the poem is to teach a lesson to readers to always follow your heart. If
you take the easy way, you’re going to get tired of it and regret not doing what your heart
desired.
8.
State the central idea or theme of the poem in a sentence.
The central theme of this poem is to fallow your heart; taking the easy way isn’t always
the best idea. It’s about being tired of doing the same old boring thing throughout your
life.
Adapted from
From Sound & Sense, 8th edition, written by Perrine/Arp, published by Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, p. 28
9.
Discuss the tone of the poem. How is it achieved?
The tone is the poem is spoken in a slightly sad, depressed and regretful tone. The
speaker achieves this through his diction and use of a metaphor of apple picking to
choices in life.
10.
a. Outline the poem so as to show its structure and development, or
b. Summarize the events of the poem.
a. This poem has varying meters to set the reader off-balance, kind of.
11.
Paraphrase the poem.
“My ladder is sticking through a tree towards the sky, with an empty barrel next to it and
I am tired of apple-picking. The smell of apples is making me sleepy. I see a bough of ice
as I rub my eyes. I am about to dream. Large apples come and go, and the bruises are
evident. I hear many apples rumbling, but I am tired with apple-picking. It is clear what
will trouble my sleep. If the woodchuck was here, he could tell me what kind of sleep I
feel coming on; a sleep like his or a just a human sleep.”
12.
Is this poem typical of Frost’s body of work? Why or why not?
This is indeed a typical poem of Frost’s, because the poem is in the typical tone of
somber and reflective, much like every other poem of his. It involves nature and the
human senses. It also revolves the rural side of nature. However, many of his poems are
often in a particular pentameter while this poem varies.
13.
Discuss the diction of the poem. Point out words that are particularly well chosen and
explain why.
What Frost does in this poem is repeat the word ‘sleep’ and words relating to sleep, such
as ‘drowsing’ (8), ‘dreaming’ (17), ‘overtired’ (28). This is to give the reader a sense of
tiredness and to get the idea of sleep in the reader’s mind. Frost also uses a lot of apple
diction, like ‘russet’ (20) and ‘bruised’ (34). He also states that the grass is ‘hoary’ (12),
instead of explicitly saying ‘frosty’ or ‘icy’. This could be due to the soft ‘h’ sound.
14.
Discuss the imagery of the poem. What kinds of imagery are used?
Nature and apple imagery is the primary example in this poem. He uses a lot of apples to
get his point across. He also gives a dream-like stupor image by describing the
“magnified apples appear[ing] and disappear[ing]” (19). He makes the reader uncertain
of whether or not the speaker is asleep or soon falling asleep.
15.
Point out examples of metaphor, simile, personification, and metonymy and explain
their appropriateness. Discuss how they contribute to the meaning of the poem.
Simile: “The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his/long sleep, as I describe its
coming on,/or just some human sleep” (40-42).
Adapted from
From Sound & Sense, 8th edition, written by Perrine/Arp, published by Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, p. 28
16.
17.
Look for patterns of opposites: light and dark, pleasant and disturbing, harmonious and
cacophonous: Do these illustrate a conflict in the poem?
Mentally tired vs. physically tired. Apples appearing and disappearing. Good choices vs.
bad choices.
Point out and explain any symbols. If the poem is allegorical, explain the allegory.
Well, the apples could represent his choices, and the barrel could represent his
expectations or desires. The ladder can represent a transition. The poem is allegorical to
‘the big sleep’. The ice trough that the speaker talks about can represent the other life, or
the dream.
18.
Point out and explain examples of paradox, overstatement, understatement, and
irony. What is their function?
Overstatment/Hyperbole: “There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,” (30). This is
to show the reader that he is in a dream-like state.
19.
Point out and explain any allusions. What is their function?
There are no allusions, other than the one to Heaven in the second line of the poem.
20.
Point out significant examples of sound repetition and explain their function.
The repetition of –eep/-eap is repetitive. Frost mentions the word ‘sleep’ six times
throughout the poem, and he subtly slips the word ‘heap’ (35) in there as well. This could
be to hammer the idea of sleep into the reader’s minds.
21.
a. What is the meter of the poem? Are there exceptions? Why do some lines have a
different meter?
b. Copy the poem and mark its scansion. If the poem is longer than 20 lines, choose 20
and make sure to include the lines that are the exception to the rule. This will be turned in
with your presentation.
a.) The meter is typically iambic pentameter but it varies. Some lines are dimeter, while
others have 7 or 11 syllables. This is to keep the reader guessing, so to speak, and to
throw them off-guard. It is to set an off-balance sense.
b.)
My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
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.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
Adapted from
From Sound & Sense, 8th edition, written by Perrine/Arp, published by Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, p. 28
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.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
22.
Discuss the adaptation of sound to sense.
23.
Describe the form or pattern of the poem.
24.
This is a rhyming poem, although there is no exact rhyme scheme. The rhyme scheme
is not definite but there are occasionally couplets, or there are schemes such as A-B-BA.
What is the most significant line in the poem to you? Why?
AmyLee: The most significant line to me is probably either lines 37 to 42, or line 6:
“But I am done with apple-picking now” (6). This is because it gets the point across that
sleep plays a large role in this poem and it develops the poem.
25.
Why is this poem still relevant today? What is its meaning in your life?
AmyLee: I say it is still relevant today because some people feel as if their whole life is a
dream, or that they are tired of things going the way that they do. I see the poem as a
dream-like stupor; that maybe everything is not what it seems. Yet, I also interpret it as
life and the decisions you make, and maybe making all the wrong ones. And that the
speaker is just overtired of his past and the ghosts haunting him about it, for example, the
apples could represent choices. I also interpret this poem as a metaphor for death, and the
speaker is wondering if he is really dying or just sleepy.
26.
Of his poems, Frost often said they “begin in delight, and end in wisdom.” Discuss the
“delight” and “wisdom” wherever you may (or may not) find them in this particular
poem.
The poem does not necessarily begin with delight, because right off the bat the speaker
states that he/she is “done with apple-picking now” (6). The poem begins with an
emptiness as Frost states “And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill” (3). The wisdom is also
non-existent because the speaker is stuck between a dream world and reality. There’s not
really any advice or pieces of wisdom in this poem.
Adapted from
From Sound & Sense, 8th edition, written by Perrine/Arp, published by Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, p. 28
Random notes:
Tired of making choices.
1st line is longest in poem. 12 syllables, illusion of long ladder, allusion to Biblical story
of Jacob’s dream.
Metaphor-mentally and physically tired. Being through with stuff.metaphor for making
decisions in life. Some have fallen to the earth,or cherished in my hand.end of cycle.
Winter.
Dream-like quality: until line 13, no rhyme scheme. ice distorts vision.Man who’s in a
state where you are drifting off, life is becoming before him.
But and And transition words. Narrative poem.
For=as a consequence.
Irregular rhyme scheme. Like he lost focus, becomes more of a dream.
42 lines long. Not broken into stanza. Because like a dream that goes on and on and on.
Human sleep has double meaning, like regular sleep or death.
Ironic b/c he wants harvest, apples dropped end up going wrong anyways.
4 out of 5 senses. Appear and disappear, arch keeps ache, line 8 with scent, line 21, 24-25
hearing.
No taste, spent whole life w/ apples, don’t want to taste them. Ironic.
Published 1914, while in England. Very nostalgic for New England.
Maybe reference to him.