apple picking

After Apple-Picking
1.)How does the poet convey so vividly the experience of “apple picking”? Point out effective examples of each kind of imagery used. What emotional responses do the images evoke?
Robert frost conveys the act of apple picking in such an amazingly vivid way because he uses imagery that covers the senses of sight, smell, touch, and sound. He describes sight of the apples he’s picked intimately “And every fleck of russet showing clear”. Frost uses colors and shapes to provide a rich and deep apple-picking world. This type of imagery gave me a sense of frostiness and also inspires a hunger for apples.
His second type of imagery is smell. He is almost lethargic as he smells the apples “The scent of apples; I am drowsing off” they impress upon the reader a sense of calmness and peacefulness… and again a hunger for apples
Thirdly is the sense of touch. “I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough”, my instep arch not only keeps the ache/ it keeps the pressure of a ladder- round”, strangely enough touch was the most vague type of imagery used in this poem, It left an otherworldly or out-of body-experience sense, as if the reader was in a dream already.
Lastly is the imagery of sound. “ The rumbling sound of load on load of apples coming in.” the sound here is massive, rumbling is used to give an impression of power and awe, even if it is only the sounds of apples rolling into the cellar.
2.) How does the speaker regard his work? Has he done it well or poorly? Does he find it enjoyable or tedious? Is he dissatisfied with the results?
The speaker has done his work to his fullest, but there are still apples in the tree. He regrets not being able to complete his duties. I believe that at the beginning of his labor he did enjoy this work, he says “Of apple picking I am overtired of the great harvest I myself desired” So he did in fact wish to pick apples, but now he is sick of it.
3.) The speaker predicts what he will dream about in his sleep. Why does he shift to the present tense in line 18 when he begins describing a dream he has not yet had? How sharply are real experience and dream experience differentiated in the poem?
Frost switches to present tense during his dream because he is so sure that this is what he will dream about. Apple-picking is all he knows; therefore it is only logical that he would dream of apple-picking. He has become so accustomed to the feel of a ladder beneath his soles that even in his dreams this feeling will haunt him. The difference between real experience and dream experience in the poem is not only in the new first person form, but also
4.)The poem uses the word SLEEP six times. Does it, through repetition come to suggest a meaning beyond the purely literal? If so, what attitude does the speaker take toward this second signification? Does he fear it? Does he look forward to it? What does he expect of it?
In this poem sleep is used as a euphemism for death. Long sleep especially supports this idea. The speaker is so tired that he knows he will be incapacitated for some time, whether he will rise in the spring like a woodchuck, or simply pass on like an ordinary human. The worker does not fear death, for he has worked hard. I do think he speaks of the apples he left on the boughs with regret. Why would he fear such a thing, he expect his afterlife to be like a dream, a dream in which he is doomed to experience the life he has already lived for an eternity. This is an especially demonic hell, to be banished to a life of tedious labor; this guy must really love apples to be looking forward to it.
5.) IF sleep is symbolic both literal and metaphorical, other details also ma take on additional meaning, if so, how would you interpret the ladder, the season of the year, the harvesting, the pane of glass, What denotation has the word “essence”
The ladder is his path to heaven, he has spent so much time on the “ladder” that he hopes his eternal sleep will be very peaceful and restful, but he knows he will dream of apples. Fall- it symbolizes the end of everything, trees are shedding their leaves and animals are preparing for the long hell that is winter. The harvesting is a metaphor for all of the work the speaker has done throughout his life, apples in the cellar are goals and small deeds he has accomplished and done. Apple on the ground are his failures, and apples still in the tree are experiences that he has yet to try, and never will have the opportunity to.
6.) How does the woodchuck’s slumber differ form “just some human sleep?”
A woodchuck sleeps through the winter, and then comes back from the dead in the spring. Furthermore because the woodchuck is an animal, it will not be haunted by bad dreams throughout its sleep. Humans do not have the ability or privilege to sleep for 4 months of the year, and if he dreams of apples and the pain of the ladder in his instep, than no doubt the speaker will not be able to sleep for very long either, before he awakes with the horror of realization that next fall he must go back to apple-picking.