"After Apple-Picking" by Robert Frost
Anonymous
English 1110.02
Dr. - -
Due 19 September, 2013
Picking Apples and Existential Crises In Robert Frost’s “After Apple-Picking”, the speaker drifts into sleep after a day’s work. The speaker begins with an opening concerning his apple-picking exploits. Tired after apple-picking for a while, he thinks back to the morning, whereupon he experiences a sort of dream state. After this, he thinks once again on his exhaustion and sleep and the poem ends. On the surface, this poem appears to be a simple observation about an apple-picking excursion. Beneath the exterior, however, one can extract many different implications and meanings. The text seems to deal largely with the speaker’s complicated psyche. Frost utilizes the simple task of apple-picking to explore the confusing area of human awareness. The text is largely unclear and ambiguous about the speaker’s ability to stay awake. During the expository sentences, the speaker says that he is “done with apple-picking now… I am drowsing off” (6, 8). Despite initially expressing his inclination towards sleep, however, he reminisces to earlier in the day when he picks up a piece of ice off of a drinking trough. As he examined the ice, “it melted, and I let it fall and break. / But I was well / Upon my way to sleep before it fell” (13-15). The exact purpose of the ice here is open to debate – on one hand, it might just be an interesting occurance the speaker decides to mention. Once the ice falls, though, he enters what may be a dream-like state. In this moment, he appears to begin his struggle with awareness. In this state, he details “magnified apples [that] appear and disappear” (18). In this first part of the poem, Frost introduces what seems to be some kind of internal question of consciousness. The speaker tires towards the end of his apple-picking experience, but he was also drowsy to begin with, as supported by the experience with the ice. Then he introduces a dream about apples,
English 1110.02
Dr. - -
Due 19 September, 2013
Picking Apples and Existential Crises In Robert Frost’s “After Apple-Picking”, the speaker drifts into sleep after a day’s work. The speaker begins with an opening concerning his apple-picking exploits. Tired after apple-picking for a while, he thinks back to the morning, whereupon he experiences a sort of dream state. After this, he thinks once again on his exhaustion and sleep and the poem ends. On the surface, this poem appears to be a simple observation about an apple-picking excursion. Beneath the exterior, however, one can extract many different implications and meanings. The text seems to deal largely with the speaker’s complicated psyche. Frost utilizes the simple task of apple-picking to explore the confusing area of human awareness. The text is largely unclear and ambiguous about the speaker’s ability to stay awake. During the expository sentences, the speaker says that he is “done with apple-picking now… I am drowsing off” (6, 8). Despite initially expressing his inclination towards sleep, however, he reminisces to earlier in the day when he picks up a piece of ice off of a drinking trough. As he examined the ice, “it melted, and I let it fall and break. / But I was well / Upon my way to sleep before it fell” (13-15). The exact purpose of the ice here is open to debate – on one hand, it might just be an interesting occurance the speaker decides to mention. Once the ice falls, though, he enters what may be a dream-like state. In this moment, he appears to begin his struggle with awareness. In this state, he details “magnified apples [that] appear and disappear” (18). In this first part of the poem, Frost introduces what seems to be some kind of internal question of consciousness. The speaker tires towards the end of his apple-picking experience, but he was also drowsy to begin with, as supported by the experience with the ice. Then he introduces a dream about apples,