A Favorite Poem

[MrBranchAPLit]

A few terms you might see on the AP Exam:

pastoral - any poem related to the countryside, sheparding, or rural living.

pastoral elegy - a poem that mourns/laments/praises the death of some element in nature or related to the pastoral

ballad - a narrative poem, usually structures in short stanzas of 3-5 lines and a refrain (repeated line)

caesura - a pause within a line of poetry

After Apple Picking
by Robert Frost

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. 5
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass 10
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
And held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell, 15
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear. 20
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound 25
Of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, 30
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap 35
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it?s like his 40
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.


1. Would you classify this as a pastoral poem? Why or why not?

2. Identify the tone and one poetic element/technique that helps to support that tone.

3. What are your impressions of this poem and its meaning?

4. If you didn't cover it in your response to #3, what symbolic meanings does the poem, especially the idea of "sleep", have?

[sofiastaburuaga]

1. Would you classify this as a pastoral poem? Why or why not?
I wouldn?t think of it being a pastoral poem because it does talk about some nature but I think its just a metaphor for life and how tired the author is. The poem doesn?t really talk a lot about rural living or sheparding. It talks about picking apples from a tree.
2. Identify the tone and one poetic element/technique that helps to support that tone.
The tone is one of tiredness and its represented by the repetition of the word sleep. The author of the poem is just tired of life itself and he just wants to sleep.
3 & 4.
I think this poem talks about being tired of life itself and just wanting a break from everything that is happening around. The apples might represent the opportunities and work that life has given the author and that he always took(picked) them all but now he just wants to rest and be left alone. Its almost as if I can see an old man just giving up after working so hard his entire life. Sleeping is a metaphor for resting.

[RodrigoCC]

1. I believe this poem is pastoral because is takes place in a rural setting. This man picks apples all day and that has to do with the countryside and with rural environments.

2. The tone of this is a tired one that reviews the world, his dreams and his day to day life. The author uses imagery to describe what his life and what his dreams are like. He uses descriptions like melting to describe a ladder.

3 & 4. I think this poem is about a man that is so exhausted that he is having a complete mental breakdown. All day he thinks about apples and he seems to be living a nightmare. When he sleeps, he can no longer rest because of these harsh dreams of melting ladders and people using bruised apples to make cider. He takes so much time to pick the best apples and in the end they even put the ugly apples in the cider mix. His life is based on so little and he can barely stand what he does. Sleep means nothing to him because it is filled with nightmares anyways.

[mariecburt]

1. Would you classify this as a pastoral poem? Why or why not?

Yes, the poem talks about apple-picking and how of a rural tradition it is.

2. Identify the tone and one poetic element/technique that helps to support that tone.

The tone is tired and melancholic, he dreams of the days of apple picking, but knows he must rest.

3/4. What are your impressions of this poem and its meaning? what symbolic meanings does the poem, especially the idea of "sleep", have?

I think this poem is about an old man looking back on life and on all of the work he has done, he is a bit tired because of the repetitiveness and the lack of excitement in his life. Sleep means rest, a rest from the hard work he has had in his life.

[dainkelly]

1. Would you classify this as a pastoral poem? Why or why not?
Yes I do think this poem is pastoral because of all of the elements of rural life in it
2. Identify the tone and one poetic element/technique that helps to support that tone.
The tone of the poem i think is overfed, it describes that feeling all too well using imagery and a slow and tired word choice
3/4. What are your impressions of this poem and its meaning?
This poem made me tired and wanting to sleep. In this poem I think growing old is the point of it, feeding on apples describes when you are young and vivaciouse, but eventually you grow tired of apples and you just want to stop, untill you are ready for death, or sleep in other words.

[idaeaton]

1. Would you classify this as a pastoral poem? Why or why not?
Yes this poem could be classified as a pastoral poem since it does make direct references to the rural life and the picking of apples as a routine of such life.

2. Identify the tone and one poetic element/technique that helps to support that tone.
The tone is that of tiredness and complete exhaustion. The man is accepting the fact that he has grown old and his time for rest has come. In a way it?s more or less saying ?grow old graciously?. He does not see the point of keep on going anymore. However he has regrets like when he says "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?. He is only reflecting on his life at this point.

3. What are your impressions of this poem and its meaning? 4. If you didn't cover it in your response to #3, what symbolic meanings does the poem, especially the idea of "sleep", have?
There are several symbolisms in this poem. The words ?sleep?, ?night?, and ?winter? all refer to death. He knows he is going to die. He has some regrets, but expects a peaceful death. Also, the fact that the author uses the specific fruit ?apple? makes a direct reference to the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. Although it?s not the main theme of the poem, it?s there for a reason.

[mrodriguez]

1. Would you classify this as a pastoral poem? Why or why not?

This poem is related to the countryside and rural living, so yes it is pastoral.

2. Identify the tone and one poetic element/technique that helps to support that tone.

The tone is "tired". The author uses diction such as "sleep", "dreaming" and "overtired" to create this tone.

3. What are your impressions of this poem and its meaning?
4. If you didn't cover it in your response to #3, what symbolic meanings does the poem, especially the idea of "sleep", have?

This poem is about being ready for your eventual death when getting old. The man is "tired" of picking apples, and I take this as him being satisfied with what he has done. He is through working, he just wants to rest into retirement and latter possibly even death. Sleep is death but it could also mean rest.

[shepner]

1. Would you classify this as a pastoral poem? Why or why not?
Yes I would classify this poem as a pastoral one. With the images of apple-picking, one gets the sense of country side and rural living.
2. Identify the tone and one poetic element/technique that helps to support that tone.
The tone of the poem is of dissatisfaction, and incompleteness. Lines 2-5 ?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? demonstrate the authors feeling of failure, and how his harvest is not complete.
3. What are your impressions of this poem and its meaning?
This poem talks about harvesting something and not getting it done. It has plenty of hints that the winter is coming, such as the ?Essence of winter sleep is on the night?, and the lines ?I got from looking through a pane of glass / I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough?, where the pane of glass is frozen water. The narrative voice is exhausted after a long summer of picking apples, which can mean any kind of activity, to have winter coming and his harvest not done.
4. If you didn't cover it in your response to #3, what symbolic meanings does the poem, especially the idea of "sleep", have?
Sleep in this poem means rest. Long sleep stands for sleeping during the winter, and resting from all the harvesting and picking up the apples. His sleep is troubled, and full of nightmares, which are an indication of the incomplete harvest.

[alberto_dacosta]

1) I would classify this poem as a pastoral poem because of the abundance of references to activities that are traditionally conceived as being rural. The fact that the man is picking apples, for one, already hints at a farm setting.

2) I wouldn't say that the poem's tone is nostalgic; rather, I would say that it is peaceful and satisfied. The use of diction such as "drowsing off", "sleep", and "dreaming" connotates a positive sense of tranquility that the voice most likely associates with a general satisfaction about the life that he or she has led.

3) I think that the poem is very interesting given the metaphor that it proposes for life as a whole. "Sleep" can be contextually taken to mean the voice's death, which he faces with a sense of ease given the fact that of the "ten thousand thousand fruit to touch", meaning his options in life, "there may be two or three apples I didn't pick up from some bough". In that sense, the poem's voice feels accomplished: he profited of all the opportunities offered to him throughout his life and can now sleep "whatever sleep it is". I think that the poem stresses the necessity for the individual to profit as much as possible from his life so that, when the time comes for him to face his death, he can do so positively with the understanding that he lived to the fullest.

[rcln]

1. Would you classify this as a pastoral poem? Why or why not?
I would classify this poem as a pastoral one because I perceive the action of "picking apples" as a typification of the rural life.

2. Identify the tone and one poetic element/technique that helps to support that tone.
I would say that this poem contains a tone of nostalgia, for the narrator uses the apples which are not picked as a symbolism to the opportunities he have had but have not taken during his life.

3/4. What are your impressions of this poem and its meaning? What symbolic meanings does the poem, especially the idea of "sleep", have?
In the poem, the concept of "sleep" means either winter or death. The poem portrays the last moments of an old man who is going to heaven. In the reality, "there?s a barrel that [he] didn?t fill," meaning that he stills have ambitions unfulfilled. But in his dream, he is given so many opportunities that even his desire is "overtired."

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ April 23, 2008 01:37 AM: Message edited by: brucelin ]</font>