Poetic methods used in 'After Apple Picking' -Robet Frost

by feelinggood (student)

Robert Frost

a) Write about Frost’s poetic method in ‘After Apple Picking’

Frost begins his poem ‘After Apple Picking ‘by allowing his readers to immediately know what his poem is about by using the title, which makes it obvious; telling the audience that it’s about apple picking. There is a regular rhyming scheme that’s quite frequent and the structure of the poem isn’t stanzaed, so therefore the speed of the poem is fairly fast and feels continuous, because there are no pauses.

Frost uses an informal tone when writing ‘After Apple Picking’ by quickly changing the subject of the poem ‘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’ this speeds up the rhythm but seems almost as if the narrative point of view is in some sort of dream or trance like state because he can’t make clear decisions ‘there may be two or three’ and his attention seems to be somewhere else, because it gives the impression that he’s quick to carry on with the poem, when changing the subject frequently. ‘There’s a barrel that I didn’t fill’ symbolises unfinished work.

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When Frost writes ‘Apples I didn’t pick upon some bough’ implies that someone else has been to this place and picked apples but left them there and ‘But I’ am done with apple picking now’ may state that the narrator is feeling tiresome, feeling like giving up and this adds to the idea that its quite a dreamy poem. In addition to the dreamy tone the narrator gives ‘Essence of winter sleep is on the night, The scent of apples: I’ am drowsing off’ meaning, its a cold wintry night, darkness is falling because its night and their feeling sleepy, the idea that the scent of apples is making them drowsy may imply that apples are comforting to them, and picking apples makes them feel tired because its so the monotonous.

The poem continues its form of a trance ‘Upon my way to sleep’ which means that he’s falling into sleep. At first, it was difficult to tell if the narrative person was imagining or really dreaming but with Frost’s continuous usage of the word ‘sleep’ and with its repetition; the word emphasises how exhausted the narrator is, it’s almost as if he’s reminding himself and the audience of his exhaustion; which then gives the impression that if he’s reminding himself of his need for sleep, he’s torturing or punishing himself- making him crave sleep even more. When Frost adds ‘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.’ Gives the idea that he’s obsessed with apples, because he’s now dreaming of perfect apples.

However, After Frost adds ‘And I keep hearing from the cellar bin, the rumbling sound of load on load of apples coming in, for I have had too much of apple picking: I’ am overtired’ It becomes clear that he may not be obsessed with apples, but instead just imagining hearing the sound, because he’s grown used to hearing it so often.

Moreover, Frost writes ‘As of no worth, one can see what will trouble this sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is, were he not gone’ this seems quite confusing because it seems as if he’s contradicting himself over the matter of sleep, possibly meaning that it may not be the kind of sleep that you do during night but maybe the kind of sleep such as death, and concluding that he’s anticipating having a troublesome ‘sleep’. This is supported when he adds ‘were he not gone’ which could symbolise the idea of his form of sleep and how he was not ‘worth’ having a troubled free death. Afterwards, ‘Long sleep, as I described it coming on, or just some human sleep’ is added and summarises that the narrative person is either talking about himself or someone else-describing death as a long sleep.

This poem may be presented as a continuous metaphor for someone coming to the end of their life.

There may also be a connection between the fruits, which could symbolise new life and when God first created Earth and when Adam and Eve took fruit off of the Tree Of Knowledge even after they were forbidden to, disobeying God’s orders- the apples could resemble new creations and mistakes taken in life.

In addition, because Frost has wrote ‘After Apple Picking’ this may be supportive to the idea of new life, because he’s implying an event that’s yet too come, maybe suggesting the after life of death.