After Apple-Picking Group
Question:
allu
Student
High School - 10th Grade
What is the physical condition of the apple-picker in Robert Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking"?
Answers:
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eNotes Editor
Posted by dymatsuoka on Thursday April 2, 2009 at 8:56 AMThe overriding sense of the physical condition of the apple-picker is one of fatigue. It is the end of the day, and he is dropping off to sleep. He says,
"...I am done with apple-picking now...essence of winter sleep is on the night...I am drowsing off".
The apple-picker appears to be in that nether-world between sleeping and waking, when the body is relaxing but the mind is still active. He sees the world as somewhat distorted, like he perceived it that morning when he viewed it through "a pane of glass", a shard of ice "skimmed...from the drinking trough". The apple-picker's body is tired, his "instep arch...keeps the ache", and he is "overtired", having "had too much of apple-picking". He remembers all the work there had been to do that day,
"there were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall".
The apple-picker is spent, and in his exhausted state, he knows "what form (his) dreaming (is) about to take". He will dream of apples;
"Magnified apples appear and disappear...stem end and blossom end...and every fleck of russet showing clear".
The apple-picker knows his sleep will be troubled, "whatever sleep it is". He does not, at this point, know whether the sleep that is about to overcome him will be "just some human sleep"; his tiredness is such that it might require something much longer to revive him.
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eNotes Editor
Posted by brandih on Thursday April 2, 2009 at 11:31 AMThis question has been previously asked and answered. Please see the link below for more information.
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