In class last week, you started writing a short paragraph response to AFTER APPLE PICKING.
Please post your response in the comments below, and feel free to respond to each other (highlighting what points you particuarly like, agree with, etc). Your comments on the blog will amount eventually to a participation grade.
Alia Beny
How does Frost convey a sense of weariness in “After Apple Picking”?
In Frost’s poem “After Apple Picking” the narrator uses diction of sleep and dreams, rhyme scheme and sensory imagery to convey an impression of weariness to the reader. Firstly, the diction of dreaming and sleepiness is greatly noticeable throughout the poem and helps intoxicate the reader with the dreamy aspect of the poem. As seen straight from the beginning in the seventh line, “Essence of winter sleep is on the night” both words “sleep” and “night” set the global atmosphere of the poem and transitions the text to a dreamier dimension as the previous line reads “But I am done with apple-picking now”. In line 17 it is now obvious that the narrator is dreaming; “What form my dreaming was about to take”. There also is the important input of the rhyme scheme that seems to be quite irregular in the whole poem, indeed we start with ABBA but the narrator changes straight away and never really adopts one special type of rhyme. This irregularity conveys the variations of dreams and contributes to perpetuate the weariness of the poem. Finally, the strong presence of sensory imagery also triggers the drowsiness in the reader’s mind like in line number 8 ; “The scent of apple; I am drowsing off” which emphasizes how the narrator seems to pay a lot of attention to apples and its scent, it inebriates him in his dream. In the tenth line, which says “I got from looking through a pane of glass”, the sensory imagery used obviously highlights the weary aspect of the text as it reminds the reader of the process of waking up and having a blurry eyesight. In line 30, the narrator uses the sense of touch; “There were ten thousand thousand fruits to touch” to lock up the reader in his dream while using all three senses and insisting on the drowsiness.
“Essence of winter sleep is on the night” both words “sleep” and “night” set the global atmosphere of the poem and transitions the text to a dreamier dimension ”
I like the “dreamier dimension” part, sounds very trippy haha
<3
In Frost’s poem “After Apple-Picking” the poet uses diction of surreal, sensory imagery and rhyme to convey the narrator’s existential crisis through his sleep.
Firstly, throughout the poem the diction of surreal and drowsiness is strongly present:
“I am drowsing off” (l.8). This quote truly shows the loss of control that is presented throughout the poem. Not only the narrator is drowsing off into a sleep but he is also losing control of his life through the repetitiveness of the act of Apple-picking. This blurry idea of losing control is furthermore underlined by the unclear representation of sleep in the poem: on multiple occasions “sleep” is evoked with a different meaning; the interconnectedness between death, sleep and Existentialism is thus implicitly supported.
Moreover the narrator explicitly evokes existentialism, even though he will later explain that he had it before dreaming. “looking through a pane of glass” (l.10). THis quote connects his dream-actions to his real actions: confusion arises. The blurriness is even more underlined with the fact that the narrator is looking through a pane of glass, in this case ice, making his vision blurry. Not only his vision in reality by losing control is blurred but also his dream become more and more unclear as if his reality approaches his dreams in a dynamic rhythm.
Lastly the last quote “strangeness from my sight” (l.9) shows that he can’t seem to get back to reality: the ice could here be symbol of poetry. Frost could be giving an idea of not being able to look at reality without poetry and abstraction anymore underlining even more the fact that the differentiation between dreams and reality is getting harder.
This last quote connects to the next technique used by Frost: sensory imagery. “My instep arch not only keeps the ache” (l.21). This present sensory imagery marks the narrator’s activity as a farmer: the narrator possibly here does an allusion between the repetitive activity activity of Apple-picking by the narrator and the insatiable activity of poetry by Frost. The sensory imagery gives a more reality-near vision of the activities described by the narrator: this is obviously confusing for the reader, as dreams versus reality is evoked throughout the poem.
Secondly the sensory imagery can also be seen as an echo: “The rumbling sound of load on load apples coming in” (l.25-26). The sound here evokes echo: the repetitiveness explained in the first quote here serves as an echo of the past of the narrator or also the poet who worked as a farmer before becoming poet. The kinesthetic image also gives the reader a lively representation as the sound of apples falling could evoke memories; memories that can thus be connected to the echo of the past evoked by the narrator.
Lastly the poem is also based on an imperfect rhyme scheme. This imperfect representation enables the narrator to show the regrets of his past: “And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill” (l.3). This void represents the unfulfillness of the narrator’s life: the regrets evoke an imperfect life translated by an imperfect rhyme scheme. The poet is here reflecting on his poetic work: the imperfection might be the wish to create the perfect poem but not making it. Lastly, this imperfection largely makes a connection to the activity of a farmer in the poem. At the end of the poem the narrator evokes the rotten apples that later will make cider; he is comparing his imperfect harvest to his imperfect life through an imperfect rhyme scheme.
“the ice could here be symbol of poetry. Frost could be giving an idea of not being able to look at reality without poetry and abstraction anymore underlining even more the fact that the differentiation between dreams and reality is getting harder.” wowowo Pablo that’s very clever
Didn’t think about this one
bravo
How does Frost convey a sense of weariness in “After Apple Picking”?
In Frost’s poem “After Apple-Picking” the poet uses diction of sleep and dreams, sensory imagery and rhyme to illustrate the narrator’s existential crisis through his sleep.
First of all, Frost uses diction of sleep and dreams throughout the poem to give a sense of drowsiness. We can clearly notice that sleep is all over the poem; the word “sleep” appears six times throughout the poem (line 7,15,38,41,42). Frost’s poem focuses on someone who’s exhausted after a long day’s work after apple picking. The poem’s speaker replays the day’s events while feeling anxious about all the apples left unpicked. The poem reflects the complexe feeling of falling asleep, and sleep itself is presented as being not even restful like for example, in line 8 “I’m drowsing off”. The narrator is also dreaming about his apple picking : “And I could tell, what form my dreaming was about to take” (line 16 and 17); the poem suggests the ways that exhaustion serves only to reveal the speaker’s worries. The speaker even acknowledges being “overtired” and suggests that a long hibernation, like the “woodchuck” (line 40) might be welcome. In this way, sleep seems to represent a time of creative rest, often necessary for an artist or writer after a particularly productive period. Also, the speaker contrasts the idea of the woodchuck’s hibernation with a simpler “human sleep”(line 42) and wonders about the differences between the two. It seems, then, that simply falling asleep at the end of the day is a symbol of death itself.
Secondly, sensory imagery is often used in the poem to convey the idea of sleep taking or putting a light on the narrator’s thoughts. On line 8, “the scent of apples” is showing how, even in his sleep, the narrator is smelling the apples, he is almost obsessed by this sense. In this dreamlike state, anxiety begins to overtake the speaker’s other senses too. The speaker hears “the rumbling sound of load on load of apples coming in,”( line 25 and 26) imagery that suggests being buried in work. Even the speaker’s foot feels “the pressure” (line 22) of standing on a ladder. This underlines the goal of ambition, the willingness to succeed and the ambition of the narrator: the ladder is helping the narrator to “climb” to its goals. On lines 30 and 31, “There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall” indicate the speaker’s fear, as well as the frustration of being unable to work creatively with all the words and images that have come to the speaker. The poet is using again sensory imagery to show the speakers worries that if he or she can’t take care of these ideas, they will become worthless and rot.
Finally, the poet uses rhyme to illustrate the narrators existential crisis. Throughout the poem, both rhyme and line-length are manipulated and change through each verse. The mystery of the rhymes in this poem, when will they come and how different, keeps words and sounds active. They keep the reader on their toes, awake, while the speaker drifts off into unconsciousness. What is different about this poem is the special and unusual way in which Frost has changed the rhyme scheme, to reflect the dreaminess and uncertainty experienced by the speaker. The first four lines rhyme ABBA, while the next two lines form a rhyming couplet (CC). Lines 7,8, and 9 rhyme in a DED pattern. After these lines, however, the rhyme scheme follows no particular pattern. Sometimes three lines in a row will rhyme, while other times a line might stand alone without rhyming with any others. The scattered and broken rhymes is maybe imitating the speaker’s confused mindset as he drifts uneasily off to sleep.
“In this way, sleep seems to represent a time of creative rest, often necessary for an artist or writer after a particularly productive period. Also, the speaker contrasts the idea of the woodchuck’s hibernation with a simpler “human sleep”(line 42) and wonders about the differences between the two. It seems, then, that simply falling asleep at the end of the day is a symbol of death itself.” –> Really like that; the different facets of sleep
thank u champignon
Frost uses an irregular rhyme and meter in the poem to create an impression of drowsiness. We can see this during the shift: “But i was well Upon my way to sleep before it fell”. Firstly, we can observe in this example that the meter is not regular. This makes these particular lines stand out as it creates an irregularity in the poem. This irregularity creates this idea of a narrator falling asleep, unable to fully complete his sentences. This reinforces the impression of drowsiness we get from the vocabulary used: “sleep”. Secondly, the rime structure in the poem is constantly switching from ABBA to ABAB. This makes it feel like the narrator cannot focus on one rhyme in particular. This in turn creates the impression of fatigue and drowsiness. This is further emphasised by the soft rhymes such as “glass” or “through”, present throughout the poem. These soft rhymes makes it feel like the narrator is whispering, reinforcing the concept of sleep (as if he did not want to wake himself up), and therefore creating a feeling of drowsiness. Finally, the presence of lots of punctuation in the poem breaks up the rhythm and slows down the entire poem. The once again reflects the idea of someone tired and drowsy, unable to think like he usually does. As well as this the absence of regularity even in the punctuation shows us that the state he is in is abnormal, emphasising the importance of the drowsiness in the poem. We can therefore see that rhyme and rhythm play a key role in creating the feeling of drowsiness present throughout the poem.
Note: I tried only focussing on structure, if this isn’t enough, or you want me to do it again please tell me
“These soft rhymes makes it feel like the narrator is whispering, reinforcing the concept of sleep (as if he did not want to wake himself up), and therefore creating a feeling of drowsiness.” waittt that’s actually so clever
In Robert Frost’s poem “After Apple-Picking”, the poet uses an almost regular rhyme and enjambment in the poem to create an impression of drowsiness.
This impression is present at the lines 14-15 : “But I was well / Upon my way to sleep before it fell,”. Here the enjambment create a double sense to the sentence. The first sense is that the speaker is doing well, all is going well. But, with the enjambment, the other sense is that the man is going to bed. The second part of the quote proves the tiredness of the man. Also, the end of the sentence : “to sleep before it fell,” can evocate the fact that the man is going to die. So here, the drowsiness can be a metaphor for death.
On the other hand, the enjambment create an irregular form. This type of form cut the reader in his reading. The reader can be destabilized and this destabilisation can create again the idea of drowsiness. So when we look at these two lines of the poem, we understand that the man is going well but finally, he is just tired. This proves the monotony of his life or his day. When something is monotonous, you are getting bored and you have an impression of drowsiness. So here, Frost proves the presence of this main idea.
In Frost’s poem “After Apple Picking” the narrator uses diction of nature and sensory imagery to convey an impression of weariness to the reader.
Firstly, the diction of nature is used throughout the poem almost like a métaphore. For exemple, Line 7 and 12, frost uses words such as « winter », « hoary » and « night », to place us at a certain time of the year or the day. The season of winter stands for a time of hibernation which directs us to the idea of sleep. Just as much as the night, winter is a time where the cold makes us want to rest and also a really dreamy time of the year with tales such as the one of Santa klaus.
Then, at line 39: « the woodchuck could say whether it’s like his », the narrator compares his sleep to the woodchuck’s one. He chooses this animal in particuliar, because it’s an animal which hibernates and needs lots of rest in this season, and just like the narrator, works a lot the rest of the year. So compared to him, the narrator implies that at such time of the year he is surrounded by the impression of drowsiness sleepiness and almost fatigue.
Finally, frost uses a lot of sensory imagery to paint an atmosphere of weariness. He is almost creating a calm and familiar picture using ;Line 7 « essence of winter sleep »and line 8 « the scent of apples »; odors and scents ; and line 24 “ rumbling sounds “; and noises . He is pushing these sensations onto the reader as we read line 9 “shimmer from my sight” , line13“ it melted “ and line 10 “ looking though a pane of glass”. These are perfectly describing sensations someone at the verge of falling asleep or waking up would feel, such as not seeing clearly or being more and more sinking in our mattresses.
In Robert Frost’s ❄️ poem, “After Apple Picking” 🍎, the poet uses an irregular rhyme 🎶 and meter in the poem to create an impression of drowsiness 💤 .
First of all, a perfect example of this is on line 14: “But I was well” going to line 15 “Upon my way to sleep before it fell”. In these two lines, the poet uses an irregular meter, namely through enjambment, to show this impression of drowsiness. Without this sentence being divided into two lines, it wouldn’t be very notable; but this phrase is peculiar because it presents a double meaning through the speaker being “well” but then being followed by “upon my way to sleep”. Not only does this specific technique create a double sense, this strange pause can also symbolise the speaker’s tiredness and need for a break; almost as if the narrator is in need of a pause mid-sentence to breath. Another way Frost depicts this sense of drowsiness is through the rhyme scheme of the poem. The poem follows no particular scheme, but this rhyming pattern does put forth an interesting edge to the poem, reinforcing and underlining this notion of drowsiness and dreaminess. This unorthodox approach characterised by a seemingly scrambled and unorganised rhyme scheme, with words finding their pair only several lines later, like “bough” (l.5) and “trough”(l.11), symbolises the illogical, confused and messy side of a dream. This notion of dreaming is patently linked with the concept of drowsiness. Not only does this pattern create a sense of lack of structure, the prolonged completion of rhymes, create a sense of suspense in the poem. As the reader goes through the poem, he reads one line, and then needs to wait a while until he reaches the pair of said line, making the poem seem slower than if the rhymes would have been consecutive. This notion of suspense and slowness supplements the drowsiness in the poem. Thus, Frost uses an irregular rhyme🎶 and meter in the poem to create an impression of drowsiness. 💤 😴
How does Frost convey a sense of weariness in “After Apple Picking”?
In his poem, Robert Frost uses sensory images to communicate a sense of weariness to the lector.
Indeed, the feeling of tiredness and confusion during a long day of work is enlightened by the Essence of winter sleep is on the night (line 7). These feelings are also enhanced by drowsing off (line 8) which focuses our attention on the slumberous attitude of the narrator. It gives us a monotonous visual impression of work, as winter can be related to the idea of a dark period of the year or death.
The vulnerability of the character leads us to another facette of the situation with the use of pane of glass (line 10) and hoary glass (line 12) which portrays the unclearness of the man’s state of mind. As a dream not making sense, he wonders what the purpose of his repetitive work is.
Following the same intention, the poet contrasted the different ideas of sleep in lines 38: sleep of mine and sleep it is, 41: Long sleep and 42: human sleep. The notion that sleep can be defined in many ways conveys our thoughts on what we expect from sleep, a dream, or metaphorically, from work.
In conclusion, Frost uses sensory images to convey our attention to how to work can make us feel out of our sensations like trapped in our own tiredness without any satisfaction from sleep.
In Robert Frost’s poem “After Apple-Picking”, the poet uses rhyme and diction of sleep and dreams in the poem to create an impression of drowsiness.
First of all, it is clearly noticeable that “sleep” is all over the poem, written six times. Sleep seems to rhyme with its repetition and accentuation of the word. Here, Frost talks about “human sleep”(l.42), “long sleep”(l.41) and “winter sleep”(l.7). It is obvious that he insists on the different types of sleep which can also be linked to death. Tired, the speaker couldn’t “rub the strangeness from my sight” (l.9). This shows the speaker is exhausted, we find once again the sense of drowsiness. This confusing part of the poem reflects the frustration of drifting off to sleep, where reality and memory seem to intertwine. Once it gets clearer that the speaker is in fact falling asleep (l.17) “What form my dreaming was about to take”, it’s also clear that the speaker has little control over the images tumbling through his anxious mind. On the other hand, the irregular rhymes and the rhythm are both essential, they show the drowsiness in this poem. For example, there are several lines between “heap” (l.35) which only find its rhyme at the end of the poem with “sleep” (l.42). The speaker is having a hard time finishing his sentences and marks pauses quite often. This type of structure keeps the story active while the speaker becomes passive.