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Essay on Robert Frost's "After Apple-Picking"

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Robert Frost's "After Apple-Picking"

In the poem “After Apple-Picking”, Robert Frost has cleverly disguised many symbols and allusions to enhance the meaning of the poem. One must understand the parallel to understand the central theme of the poem. The apple mentioned in the poem could be connected to the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. It essentially is the beginning of everything earthly and heavenly, therefore repelling death. To understand the complete meaning of Frost’s poem one needs to be aware that for something to be dead, it must have once had life. Life and death are common themes in poetry, but this poem focuses on what is in between, life’s missed experiences and the regret that the speaker is left with.
Regret …show more content…

The reverence with which he speaks of these opportunities, give the reader the sense that the speaker is now looking back on his life and suddenly realizes the importance of this lost fruit.

The speaker then goes on to say that “For all that struck the earth, No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, went surely to the cider-apple heap as of no worth” (33-36). The bruises on the fruit represent the mistakes or misused chances, maybe even failure, but the fact that these bruised apples considered worthless and discarded seems to be an epiphany to the speaker. He is realizes that while these apples were bruised, cider still came from them. The discarded apples act as metaphors for all of the mistakes that he has made in his life, and he now understands that they are in fact not worthless, as much knowledge can be gained from examining one’s mistakes.

The reason for the speaker’s sudden surge of regret seems to be looming death, for he states in the very first line, “My long two-pointed ladder’s sticking through a tree toward heaven still” (1-2). This reference to heaven is the first evidence that the speaker thinks he is going to die. At this point in the poem the references to death or the end of life are rather peaceful, as exemplified by the statement. “But I am done with apple-picking now. Essence of winter sleep is on the night” (6-7). Though the words, “winter”, “sleep”, and “night” typically represent death, they do not necessarily invoke a

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