Themes In Frost's After Apple Picking By Robert Frost
Working Life Away In Robert Frost’s “After Apple Picking” an apple farmer is finishing up a long day of harvesting apples. He has been doing the same job for so long that he sees apples all the time, even when he closes his eyes. As he sits under the tree in the cool autumn weather, the farmer reflects on the life he has lived and realizes that all he has ever done, his entire life, has revolved around growing and harvesting apples. The apple farmer is exhausted from his hard-work, and has let his entire life pass him by while he sits wondering if apples will be his only memories of this life. The setting also plays a significant role, since it is winter and the farmer is constantly talking about sleep. I think that the setting and sleep references …show more content…
This can be determined when he begins to drift off to sleep and the, “Magnified apples appear and disappear,” (Frost, Line 18) as he dreams. Someone who sees their work all around them and cannot even have a moment of piece in their dreams must be dedicated to their career. I think these lines are a reference to Frosts dedication to his work as a writer, and always being focused on his work in a sort of tunnel vision type of way. The farmer has picked a lot of apples in his career, “There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,” (Frost, Line 30) just like Frost has published a lot of writings over his career. The farmer is never able to escape his work, the same way Frost must never have been able to escape writing or opportunities to …show more content…
The one reference that I really focused on was in line 38, “This sleep of mine, whatever sleepout is,” leads me to thinking that the farmer is dying. Along with the references to sleep, the setting was crucial to forming this idea. The “pane of glass… from the trough” which is ice, “it melted,” and the “hoary grass” (Frost, Lines 10-13) all indicate that it is either winter or winter is on the way. I interpret this as he is either dying or death is coming for him, since winter is often times associated with death. I believe this interpretation is significant because that means that the apples he is seeing when he begins to fall asleep represent his life flashing before his eyes. All he has ever done is grow and harvest apples, life has been going on all around him, and the only thing he has ever payed attention to were the apples and his
One's A Heifer Analysis
543 Words | 3 PagesHe feels the need to help his family, when the other man of the house is unable to do the task of finding the cows. The crops have also been poor in their region, “We too… [have] poor crops lately. That [is] why it is so important that I find the [cows], (192). Without these cows it will be difficult for his family to survive, so any small sign, like possibly seeing the cows on the horizon is good enough for the boy to pursue looking for them even closer. The boy also has some hallucinogenic dreams, where he hears animals talking to him, but he also sees the man act ‘crazy’ while playing chess.
Summary Of 'On The Island I Have Seen'
946 Words | 4 PagesIt evokes an image of stress and worry as well as a hope through faith for a better life. It goes on to say: “The ones who are lost to God and mothers/may take the fields/the dry fields” (20-21). The reference to “dry fields” emphasizes the heat and lack of rain and also illustrates the unpleasant working condition. This also symbolizes how they are bound to the island with no other options, trapped.
Roaring 20's Tone
689 Words | 3 PagesFor example, he describes its gloominess as a “fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat,” which demonstrates a dismal feel in an ironic fashion through the contrasting imagery associated with growth and freshness. This tone is further expressed by the “ashes grow[ing] like wheat into ridges… and grotesque gardens,” which adds to the dreariness of
Symbolism In Nothing Gold Can Stay
215 Words | 1 PagesAmerican poet, Robert Frost in his melancholy poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay” presents the idea of nothing good lasting forever while using nature as a paradigm. This is represented through seasons with each season representing a different mood or stage in the cycle of growth. He develops his message through the personification of nature to show the drastic changes of plants. Specifically, this is presented in first couplet of the poem “Nature 's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.” The line mentioned is giving nature human characteristics of possession and movement to enhance the meaning behind the words relating to the spring season.
My Father's Lunch Poem
813 Words | 4 PagesFor different people, comparable situations do not always reproduce the same end results or leave the same impressions. Rather, the resulting conclusion is often highly variable. As is the case of two labors featured in the poems, My Father’s Lunch” and “The life of a Digger”. While Erica Funkhouser’s speaker, Henry, experiences injustice and lack of reward for his hard labor in “The Life of a Digger,” Margarita Engle’s speaker experiences prosperity and remuneration for their father’s hard work in “My Father’s Lunch.” Each author uses the setting of a laboring man’s lunch break to demonstrate the ramifications of a hard day’s work and the rewards or lack thereof for their efforts.
I Have A Rendezvous With Death Analysis
1000 Words | 4 Pages“I have a rendezvous with Death”. This poem is written by Alan Seeger. It talks about situation of speaker in war on theme of death. He starts his title “I have a rendezvous with Death” with paradoxical words. The word "rendezvous" is a positive term where people arrange to meet each other with willing.
The Mississippi River Empties Into The Gulf Analysis
616 Words | 3 PagesI love all the metaphors he made in this poem such as the ladder to heaven (apple-picking requires a level which Robert Frost was referring it to the ladder to heaven) and the seasonal interpretation (winter is death and spring is rebirth) that connects to the natural process of decaying and
The Pedestrian Mood Analysis
651 Words | 3 Pagesone of the many times he uses imagery throughout this story is when the narrator says, “on his way he would see the cottages and homes with their dark windows, and it was not unequal to walking through a graveyard where only the faintest glimmers of firefly light appeared in flickers behind the windows” (Pg 1). By using imagery to compare walking through the neighborhood as walking through a graveyard shows that it is completely silent and there is no activity in any of the houses. Most people wouldn't describe their neighborhood as a graveyard, this also develops the mood. Another time he uses imagery is when the narrator says, “The street was silent and long and empty, with only his shadow moving like the shadow of a hawk in mid-country” (1). This shows mood because the narrator describes him as a hawk in mid-country, that means that he is all alone in what he feels to be like a barren or abandoned place.
Figurative Language In Night Elie Wiesel
1980 Words | 8 PagesThis piece of figurative language has a big impact on the text because it is pretty much saying that the moments that happened in the camp made him lose that connection with his god, soul and made him feel like his dreams were never going to happen cause he was just sitting in that camp doing labor for several months. This affects the reader cause this shows more of how the camp really
Imagery And Diction In Alice Walker's 'The Flowers'
524 Words | 3 PagesAlice Walker uses imagery and diction throughout her short story to tell the reader the meaning of “The Flowers”. The meaning of innocence lost and people growing up being changed by the harshness of reality. The author is able to use the imagery to show the difference between innocence and the loss of it. The setting is also used to show this as well.
Billy Collins Schoolsville Analysis
742 Words | 3 PagesHe could imagine his deception of this town “nestled in a paper landscape,” (Collins 534). This image of the speaker shows the first sign of his delusional ideas of the people in his town. Collins create a connection between the speaker’s teacher teaching life and retired life in lines five and six of the poem. These connections are “ chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard,” which compares images that the readers can picture.
Eating Alone Li Young Lee Analysis
437 Words | 2 PagesThe speaker talks about harvesting and cooking which are usually positive activities, but it creates an unhappy environment. All the speaker talks about are his father and his death, which the reader can conclude with evidence from the text. The speaker also uses a nostalgic tone to show the absence of his father in his life. The speaker cherished his memories with his father and regrets not doing more.
The Flowers By Alice Walker Literary Devices
455 Words | 2 PagesOn of the greatest examples of imagery that Alice Walker uses is the one that compares light and darkness. At the beguining of the story the author mentions delicate and calm setting of a farm. In creating this imagery the reader is able to understand that all the positive and upbeat words are associated with the farm setting. Myop’s light-hearted innocence is also shown when “watching the tiny white bubbles disrupt the thin black scale”. The effective description provides credibility to the environment, and makes the later events all the more shocking,
The Symbolism Of Absence In Ann Beattie's Snow
542 Words | 3 PagesThroughout the story, the narrator hints towards smaller instances that symbolize the central theme of the story—absence or the loss of love. The recollection of painting over the wallpaper in which the narrator says, “I thought of the bits of grapes that remained underneath and imagined the vine popping through, the way some plants can tenaciously push through anything” (Beattie 108) symbolizes how their love was unable to
Analysis Of Planting A Sequoia By Dana Gioia
1100 Words | 5 PagesThe agony the writer is feeling about his son 's death, as well as the hint of optimism through planting the tree is powerfully depicted through the devices of diction and imagery throughout the poem. In the first stanza the speaker describes the setting when planting the Sequoia; “Rain blacked the horizon, but cold winds kept it over the Pacific, / And the sky above us stayed the dull gray.” The speaker uses a lexicon of words such as “blackened”, “cold” and “dull gray” which all introduce a harsh and sorrowful tone to the poem. Pathetic fallacy is also used through the imagery of nature;
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