After Apple-Picking By Robert Frost(stanza explanation)
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Stanza 1:👇🌷
My long two-pointed ladders sticking through a tree
Towards heaven still,
And theres barrel that I didnt fill Beside it, and thee may be two or three Apples I didnt pick upon some bough
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Reference:
These lines have been taken from the poem
After apple picking� written by Robert Frost�.
Context:
In this poem, the poet compares the process of apple picking with the tiring work of this world. Perhaps, we all are busy in our works and are trying hard to survive in this world. But, even then we have to accept the inevitable death. We have no alternative but to leave everything aside for this reality.
Explanation:
In these lines, the poet introduces himself as an apple picker. He has been working in his apple orchard for a long time. He is filling barrels after barrels. He has picked a lot of apple but many are still to be picked. But now he is feeling tired and wants to have some rest. Actually, the poet wants to say that when man becomes tired then he wants to take some rest, leaving behind all his works.
Stanza 2:
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
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And I 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
Reference to the Context:
Same as above.
Explanation:
In these lines, the poet gives a pictorial description of the garden where he is working. He says that smell of apples creates such an effect on him that he starts dozing. Although, he has not completed his work, yet he cannot escape from the captivating smell of apples. There was a long open box of drinking water for animals in the garden. The water in it had a frozen ice. The poet removed a sheet of ice from it in the morning and held it before him. Through this sheet of ice he looked at the white snow covered grass. The poet was sleepy as the sheet of ice was falling form his hands.
Stanza 3:
What from my dreaming was about to take Magnified apples appear and disappear, Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the arch; It keeps the pressure of ladder-round
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend. And I keep hearing from the cellar bin The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
Reference to the Context:
Same as above.
Explanation:
Here in these lines, the poet describes his dreams while he is half sleep. The apples appear before him in large size and disappear. The trees, from the roots up to the branches giving flowers of the fruit, appear. The reddish brown colour of apples becomes clearly visible to the poet. Still standing on the ladder, his instep is keeping the ladder in balancing. But the branches of the tree
have started shaking. The dream of the poet continues and he hears the rolling sound of apples
stored in the cellar, as their huge loads arrive.
Stanza 4:
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking; I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, Cherish in hand, left down and not let fall
For all
That struck the earth
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
Reference to the Context:
Same as above.
Explanation:
In these lines, the poet explains that he has tired from apple picking. Still, there are thousands of apples on the trees and he wants to pluck all these apples with his own hands. He knows that all those apples that fell down and hit the ground, will surely become useless for storage. These spoiled apples will then be crushed for juice in the machine.
Stanza 5:
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is, Were he no gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his
Longs sleep, as I describe-its coming on
Of just some human sleep.
Reference to the Context:
Same as above.
Explanation:
These are ending lines of the poem. The poet says that who wants to sleep is well aware what will disturb his sleep. Apart forms that, he wants to know what kind of sleep he is having. He says woodchuck could tell it easily about it. But that animal has gone. Now poet does not say surely whether his sleep will be like that of woodchuck or just a normal sleep for a few hours. He cannot also say whether it will be ordinary human sleep or the sleep of death. Here, in these lines the poet ends his poem with these thoughts that all our activities ends in sleep. Death is also an sleep that ends our tiresome journey of life.
