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   troutmiller Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   Physically, the speaker is exhausted.  He says how tired he is several times.

   "I am drowsing off.
   I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight."

   He was holding up a sheet of ice that had formed on the trough, and as he dropped it he even said that he was almost asleep before he dropped it.

   "But I was well
   Upon my way to sleep before it fell"

   He even discusses the discomfort of his feet from being on the ladder so much.

   "My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
   It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round."

   The mental condition then is a little different.  The speaker could be dreaming when he speaks of almost falling asleep before the ice fell from his hands.  Was it a dream?  Or was his vision a little skewed from trying to see through the ice?  Was he hallucinating perhaps?  Then at the end, when he speaks of the hibernation of the woodchuck, does that mean his "long sleep" is really death?  We are unsure of what the speaker's intentions are, and we have to decide for ourselves if he is clear headed and is aware of his surroundings. He is worried about the apples being enough and all in good shape. He makes reference to that when he speaks of the barrel he didn't fill and the ones that will waste when thrown into the cider pile. So he shows some concern for a job well done, but the question lies in whether he is awake, dreaming, or losing it mentally.

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   Posted by troutmiller on Thursday March 26, 2009 at 4:51 AM