After Apple Picking Poem by Robert Frost
After Apple Picking
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 shake the shimmer from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the water-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 reappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
And I keep hearing from the cellar-bin
That rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in.
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, lift 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.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.
wow he put in some long hours, picking apples at this orchard..almost fell asleep while picking a hard worker is an admirable quality..excellent write.. :)
Im out of words to descride the joy the poem gave me inside, but though i am young and still looking for the meaning of life i loved this poem.im sure sharing it will give others the opportunity to feel my joy.
it is marvellous and symbolic poem.i enjoyed this poem very much.in this poem poet uses fantastic symbol apple picking for human desires because we always run after our desires but our all desires donot fulfill that is why this poem hss also the element of universalityand robert frost did great job.
A fine free verse poem about apple picking, which Frost probably did on his own farm. There is a sense of abundance-a large number of apples; and weariness, 'For I have had too much / Of apple picking; I am overtired/ Of the great harvest I myself desired'. 'Harvest 'could also refer to that of his own life's effort.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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4/25/2024 6:01:43 PM # 1.0.0.1119
In this poem Sir Frost travels back and forth in time, it has got such depth, the apples symbolize the desires and the dreams which he couldn't fulfill or achieve, and now its bothering him as he has grown old, he is feeling sleepy, what kind of sleep he doesn't know, may be death, he is imagining the same apples or desires appearing and disappearing before his eyes (explains the problem of old age subtly)
I think that he's speaking of the desires and dreams that he did achieve as well.