After Apple-Picking by Robert Frost
The poem explores the speaker's physical and mental exhaustion after a long day of apple-picking. The speaker reflects on the season's end and the passing of time, symbolized by the apples that have been picked. The poem also touches on themes of labor, nature, and the human condition. The speaker's relationship with the natural world is complex, oscillating between appreciation and resentment. Throughout the poem, Frost employs imagery and symbolism to convey the speaker's emotions and thoughts. The apple-picking serves as a metaphor for the speaker's life, highlighting the cyclical nature of time and the inevitability of change. The poem's tone is contemplative and melancholic, with a sense of resignation and acceptance.
By Robert Frost · First published 1914 · Genre: Poetry, Pastoral, Symbolism · 404 words
First lines
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.
What this Textopian page supports
After Apple-Picking is listed on Textopian as a poem by Robert Frost, dated 1914 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Robert Frost
- Date: 1914 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Poetry, Pastoral, Symbolism, Modernism, Lyric
- Length: 404 words
- Structure: 1 section, 15 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Very Easy (5th Grade or below)
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Similar titles
- Mowing by Robert Frost
- Birches by Robert Frost
- The Hedge Of Hemlocks by Edna St Vincent Millay
- The Lonely Land by Madison Cawein
- Whether My Bark Went Down At Sea by Emily Dickinson
- A Late Walk by Robert Frost
Genres
- Poetry — The work is structured in verse, utilizing meter and rhyme, characteristic of poetry.
- Pastoral — The poem reflects on rural life and nature, focusing on apple-picking and the changing seasons.
- Symbolism — The poem uses symbols such as apples and ladders to convey deeper meanings about life and mortality.
- Modernism — The poem explores themes of existential reflection and subjective experience, aligning with modernist tendencies.
Tags
Autumnal · Poetic · Nature · Farming · Labor · Fatigue · Mortality · Existentialism · Philosophy · Symbolism · Imagery · Metaphor