After Apple Picking!!...I made apple pie! =D

Imagery is the representation of sense experience it evokes the seven senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch, organic imagery (an internal sensation such as hunger thirst, fatigue, nausea; and, kinesthetic imagery (movement or tension in the muscles or joints).
 
After Apple Picking:

1.    The imagery in this poem allows us to live apple picking like the speaker does. The imagery of sight allows us to picture a barrel he didn’t fill, apples he may not have picked off a branch, a frosty sight through the window, and a ladder that seems to have a specific importance. We can hear wind blowing, the rumbling sound from the cellar bin, and his frustration of not being able to sleep. Robert Frost evokes the smell of apples in his poem as he says its what the speaker smells as he’s drowsing off.

2.    The speaker seems to not be satisfied with his job of picking apples. He doesn’t do the best job he can, “and there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill, and beside it, there may be two or three apples I didn’t pick upon some bough’. He finds apple picking to be tedious and tiring – walking up and down a ladder isn’t ideal. The speaker doesn’t seem to be dissatisfied with his results, but more like he just accepts them because he wants to be done.

3.    It seems that he knows that he’ll be dreaming of apple picking. Knowing he’s tired, it’s exhausting and frustrating that he can’t take a break even when he’s not working. The tense of the poem shits maybe because the speaker wants to show how much his job dominates his life. His real and dream experiences don’t seem to be very different.

4/5. I think the signification of the ladder comes into use when referring to the word ‘sleep’.  The ladder, pointing towards heaven, could signify something much greater than just the ladder itself. Winter, which can sometimes allude to death, can clue into the idea that maybe the speaker is old. The word essence, which can also mean soul, spirit, and nature, could mean the spirit of winter, or death, is expected that night. Maybe the season of apple picking is in correlation to his life, and the off-season of apple picking is when it’s time for him to die. Looking through the pane of glass could mean that he’s trying to look to his next life, and by him making it obvious that he’s tired, he’s okay with this idea. The dream would then have greater importance also because then it could be more hinting at afterlife. He would then seem to expect to live as an apple picker in that life too.

6. Woodchucks would hibernate meaning that’d they’d sleep during the winter, and reawaken when spring came back around. Humans, however, don’t do this. They sleep during the night, and wake up every day. Unless of course, sleep has a deeper meaning of death, in which case, they do not reawaken.


What I believe the poem to be about:


Absolutely nothing.

Just kidding.

Maybe.

Probably not.

Anyways.


The poem, about an old and tired apple-picker, is about the speaker coming to terms with death. The essence of winter is upon him as he looks out the window at his old life. He feels like he has fulfulled his life's work as an apple picker because that's what he desired to do. However, living his life as an apple picker, didn't really seem to completely satisfy his life as a whole. It doesn't seem as if he had a family or anyone to care about. As he thinks about his past, he also tries to imagine what his afterlife will be like. The apple picking season is over just like the fruits of his life.