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__After Apple Picking__ By Robert Frost __Title:__ The Apple Picking sound like autumn, and because there is an “after” before it, it is probably referring to winter. The Apple may be referencing the forbidden fruit of the bible to point at something like innocence or youth. Because it’s after the picking of the youth or innocence, the title may be talking about the end of life or aging. __Paraphrase:__ The ladder pointed to heaven suggests that the speaker is near death. The barrels still unfilled are the unfulfilled dreams. The apples still left on the tree are the dreams which were given up. Winter, or death, is coming near. The speaker saw a pane of glass or a frozen sheet of ice in the drinking trough. He looks through to look for more time to accomplish the dreams and goals as if he is looking into his life, but what he sees is just old dry grass which is the reflection of his own life. He realizes that he has no time left, and his hopes and dreams are shattered like the ice which he let slip from his hands. All of his dreams are so vivid. He thinks of all of this dreams he had wished to accomplish, and so the apples are magnified, but they suddenly disappear as he remembers that those dreams can never be fulfilled. He imagines his dreams so much; he can see it vividly from “stem end and blossom end, and every fleck of russet showing clear.” The ache in his back not only symbolized the old age, but also how close death has come because the ache “keeps the pressure of a ladder round. “ The “rumbling sound” of the apples coming in emphasizes all of the dreams he was not able to capture. He is overtired now of fulfilling dreams of which he had desired, but he still has many more he would have liked fulfill. They could be things that didn’t give him too many benefits such as helping out or volunteering. He had many dreams to cherish, but he dropped many, and they became apple cider, as of no worth. The troubles in his sleep are the regrets he has in life. He feels tired at the end of the poem, and he is about to fall asleep, but he can’t be so sure if it’s death coming over, or it’s just a normal sleep. __Connotation:__ “Heaven, sleep, drowsing- off, winter, disappear, and overtired” – they all create the theme to end of life or death. It creates a negative mood to the poem. “Hoary” describes the grass, but the readers can connect the two and say that the speaker is old and dry. “The ache in his back also contributes to the old age. The apples are alluding to the loss of innocence in the bible, but more so of the loss of youthfulness or the age being able to dream and know that it is still possible. __Attitude:__ Negative. The speaker has many regrets in his life and many unaccomplished dreams. The words and the style of the poem create a sad and slow mood which reflects the tone of the speaker. At the end of the poem, the speaker doesn’t know if he’s is dying at the moment or just falling asleep which also contributes to the overall mood. __Shifts:__ The first stanza is calmer and expresses his regrets and how close to death he is. By the second stanza, the flow becomes for intense and short. It expresses his frustration of all of his regrets, but also to more strongly convince the young readers of the poem to everything they want to in their life, or to live life without regrets. He repeats words like “of load on load” or “ten thousand thousand”. The poem calms down again as it starts to talk about his wasted dreams and death. __Title:__ After Apple Picking means after life. This poem was about all of the regrets the speaker ended up with at the end of his life. __Theme:__ Regrets and broken dreams. The theme was ending a life with things still undone.

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