872 Views
Literature Xpres
0
Literature Xpres Menu

After Apple-Picking : Key info

Shape Shape

After Apple-Picking is a notable literary work by Robert Frost. A complete discussion of this literary work is given, which will help you enhance your literary skills and prepare for the exam. Read the Main texts, Key info, Summary, Themes, Characters, Literary devices, Quotations, Notes, and various study materials of After Apple-Picking.

Key info

Key Facts

  • Full Title: After Apple-Picking
  • Author: Robert Frost (1874–1963)
  • Title of the Author: The Poet of New England; Four-time Pulitzer Prize Winner
  • Source: Written during Frost’s New England years, reflecting rural labor, rest, and spiritual reflection. 
  • Written Time: 1913–1914
  • First Published: 1914 in North of Boston
  • Publisher: David Nutt (London)
  • Genre: Lyric Poem, Meditative Poem, Symbolic Poem
  • Form: Free-form iambic verse with irregular meter and rhyme
  • Rhyme Scheme: Irregular (mixed rhyme patterns)
  • Tone: Reflective, dreamy, weary, and philosophical
  • Point of View: First-Person (the speaker meditates on his physical exhaustion and spiritual thoughts after a day’s work)
  • Climax: The speaker finishes apple-picking and begins drifting between wakefulness and sleep, wondering whether his coming rest is ordinary sleep or symbolic of death.
  • Setting:
  • Time Setting: Late autumn, during apple-harvest season, near the onset of winter.
  • Place Setting: A rural New England apple orchard, symbolizing the balance between work, nature, and human mortality. 

Key Notes – English

  • Apple: The apples symbolize labor, abundance, and the harvest of life. They represent both the rewards of human effort and the weariness that comes with it.
  • Ladder: The ladder “toward heaven still” stands for human ambition, aspiration, and spiritual longing. It suggests mankind’s desire to rise higher and reach beyond the ordinary.
  • Sleep: The “long sleep” is a central image symbolizing deep rest or death. Frost uses sleep as a metaphor for the end of life’s journey and peaceful acceptance of mortality.
  • Apples Left Unpicked: The unpicked apples symbolize unfinished work, unfulfilled desires, and life’s incompleteness. They reflect human limitations and the feeling of incompletion.
  • Winter: Winter represents the final stage of life. It carries the idea of exhaustion, stillness, and the approach of death. 

Background: Robert Frost wrote “After Apple-Picking” in 1913 while living in New Hampshire. It was published in North of Boston in 1914. The poem came from his own life on a farm, where apple-picking was a real part of autumn. Frost often used such simple rural scenes to express deep thoughts. Here, he mixed real farm work with dream and reflection. The poem shows how tiredness after work feels like both sleep and death. It connects daily labor with life’s larger meaning.