34 pages • 1 hour read
Robert FrostAfter Apple-Picking
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1914A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Literary Devices
Metaphor
Metaphor is a comparison between two dissimilar objects or ideas that lacks the terms “like” or “as.” Frost frequently utilized metaphor in his poems. “After Apple-Picking” opens with the image of a “long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree / Toward heaven still” (Lines 1-2). The ladder may be viewed as a metaphor for the climb into the afterlife. If the ladder becomes a metaphor for the upward climb into the afterlife, the “cider-apple heap” deemed “of no worth” (Lines 35-36) is a metaphor for hell.
The “great harvest” (Line 29) desired by the speaker is not a metaphor for the apples the speaker either picked or left unpicked, but for the opportunities in life the speaker chose to pursue. The speaker acknowledges they are “overtired” (Line 28) of the harvest. The harvest becomes a metaphor for the speaker’s unrealized opportunities and desires; “overtired” is a metaphor for the exhaustion caused by worrying about the unrealized opportunities and desires throughout a lifetime.
The process of apple-picking is an extended metaphor for human existence. The speaker asserts “I am done with apple-picking now” (Line 6), meaning they have come to the end of their mortality. The speaker states, “[o]f apple picking: I am overtired” (Line 28), indicating that their full life has exhausted them to the point where death may be welcomed. The speaker’s physical debilitation caused by apple-picking—”My instep arch not only keeps the ache, / It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round” (Lines 21-22)—works as a metaphor for painful memories of a tough life, filled with challenge.
Tone
The tone of a poem is the attitude with which a writer imbues the text. To create an introspective, reflective tone at the beginning of “After Apple-Picking,” Frost uses the image of the ladder pointed skyward as though endless opportunities lie ahead. At Line 14—a line of only four words—the poem shifts to a futile tone created by the line’s brevity and the use of enjambment (the continuation of a thought past the end of the line that does not make use of end stop punctuation). Line 16, also written using only four words and enjambment, reinforces the futile tone. By Line 28, the tone shifts to one of exhaustion created by Frost’s usage of the blunt phrase “I am overtired.” In Line 30, the double repetition of the word “thousand” works to combine the tones of exhaustion and futility. This combination forms a conflicted tone that carries into Lines 34-36 as the speaker becomes aware that no matter how hard they worked, they could not have picked all the apples. At this point, the poem’s tone shifts again to a contemplative, resolute tone formed by the repetition of the word “sleep” (Lines 38, 41, and 42).
Assonance and Consonance
In order to create tone and rely on sound in his poems, Frost relied on assonance and consonance: forms of alliteration that repeat vowel or consonant sounds, respectively. Frost sparingly used assonance and consonance in the poem, but both work in many lines to mimic the speaker’s thoughts and move the poem forward. Assonance (and basic repetition) in Line 19—”Stem end and blossom end”—emphasizes the word “end,” creating an ominous tone. Line 26 relies on short vowel sounds—“of,” “on,” “apples,” “fill”—forming to mimic Line 25’s “rumbling sound.” Line 30 combines -t, -th, and -ou sounds—“There,” “ten,” “thousand,” “touch”—to create a sense of futile grasping.
In Line 34, words such as “No” and “not” work with the -s sounds in “bruised,” “spiked,” and “stubble” to slow the reader and form a more contemplative, somber tone. Repetition of -w sounds and hard -t sounds in Line 37—”One can see what will trouble”—create a sweeping sensation. Assonance and consonance move forward the final lines, relying on the -s sounds in words like “As,” “see,” “sleep,” and “some” to mimic a whispering and a hush, creating the image of the speaker finally falling asleep or succumbing to death.
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By Robert Frost
