2.  Consider the symbolism of apples, both in every day life and in literature.

3.  This poem is a dramatic monologue from the perspective of an apple picker.  The narrator is weary of apple-picking to the point of drowsiness.  The poem is set at the beginning of winter and towards the end of the apple harvest.  As the narrator looks through a sheet of ice that has formed on the water trough overnight he feels a ‘strangeness’ and wonders what form his dreaming will take.  He imagines himself dreaming of apples as the apple picking has gone on for so long and he has managed it with such care.  The poem ends with a consideration of the sleep he so desires and a comparison to the sleep of the woodchuck (a hibernating rodent).

4.  The poem uses an irregular rhyme scheme.  The rhythm is iambic and mostly in pentameter with some variation that adds emphasis to specific lines and fits with the erratic flow of the narrator’s thoughts  The use of sensory imagery is significant with Frost appealing to each of the senses.  Frost’s depiction of the apple harvest can be interpreted in a number of ways.

5.  The poem begins in the present tense with the image of a ladder pointing through the tree toward heaven.  The image of the “barrel that I didn’t fill” with apples still on some of the boughs tells the reader that his work is not quite done. However, this is quickly contradicted by the emphatic statement in line 5 “But I am done with apple-picking now.”  Make a note of the abbacc rhyme scheme.

6.  Line 7 alludes to the approach of both winter and night, as apple harvesting traditionally occurs during autumn in the day.  Winter is linked to sleep in the image “winter sleep” connecting the two as winter is literally linked with sleep in the northern hemisphere where many animals hibernate and winter is also a seasonal allusion to death.  Make a note of Frost’s use of a colon to accentuate the narrator’s feeling of drowsiness brought on by the scent of the apples.  Reference is made to scent and sight.  This part of the poem moves into past tense as the narrator recalls looking through the sheet of ice at the “world of hoary grass” (hoar meaning frost) and the “strangeness” he could not rub from his sight. These lines depicting his discovery of the world that has been transformed by his looking at it in an unusual way.

7.  As the sheet of ice melts he lets it fall and break. Make a note of the repetition of fall/fell, an allusion to the fall of man after the original sin (when Adam and Eve ate the apple from the tree of knowledge and became mortal). This allusion reinforces the connection between sleep and death (mortality).  The narrator’s sleepiness continues and he wonders what he will dream about.  He imagines that his dreams will feature apple- picking in the imagery of apples in lines 17-20 reinforcing the monotonous nature of the apple harvest that he imagines will even infiltrate his dreams.

8.  The poem returns to present tense as Frost shifts the attention from the physical imagery of apples to the physical aches of the apple-picker.  Notice the reference to the feeling of the ladder swaying and the sound of the apples “rumbling”.  The repetition of the “load on load of apples” reveals why he has “had too much of apple-picking” echoing the sentiment expressed in line 6.  Notice how the rhyme of “overtired” and “desired” emphasises the two words and reveals the narrator’s new perspective of apple-picking. This is perhaps a seasonal metaphor for a change of perspective that comes at a different stage in life or as a result of life experience.

9.  Use of hyperbole to describe the “ten thousand thousand fruit” and the action of cherishing each one and not letting it fall also reinforce the size of the crop and the great care that is required thereby emphasising his tiredness,  The apples that did fall or were no good were sent to the “cider-apple heap as no worth” another allusion to the Garden of Eden.  Lines 34-36 express the futility of human endeavour as even though the narrator has worked so hard he has not been able to complete his work.

10.  The poem ends on a philosophical note as the narrator invites the reader to “see what will trouble this sleep of mine” as he contemplates the futility of his work.  The repetition of sleep in “whatever sleep it is” and the playful comparison to the woodchuck (which has a long sleep or hibernation during winter) leaves the narrator uncertain about the nature of this sleep that he feels coming on.  He feels as though it is a “long sleep” as he is so weary to the point of imagining it in this way, however he recognises that it will be “just some human sleep”.  The contrast between the “long sleep” of hibernation, a sleep in which the animal is barely conscious and would most likely die if they were awoken from this ‘sleep’ is of course unattainable to humans and is most likely an allusion to death. The word choice in “just some human sleep” suggests that the narrator longs for the oblivion of a long sleep but will be denied as he is human and that is not how we sleep.