Robert Frost’s After Apple Picking encompasses what I value in a literary work in regard to its symbolism hidden behind realism. At first glance, the poem portrays the narrator picking apples and becoming tired in “I am done with apple-picking now” (Frost, line 6). However, as the poem progresses, a parallel can be drawn between life and seemingly habitual activity. The author has created a distinct image in the reader’s imagination in which the narrator’s emotions, the ambiance, and the setting create an ethereal yet cold and deathly atmosphere.
Apple-picking symbolizes life, the experiences one has, and how it directly or indirectly impacts a person. Thus, the narrator addresses the apples that fell before they were picked as going “to the cider-apple head” (Frost, line 35). The apples are experiences, and whether they are good and have been selected by the farmer or left to fall on the grown, they have an impact. Another symbol portrayed in the poem is life and death. The narrator addresses death as “winter sleep” (Frost, line 7). Winder is often associated with death in literature, but it is especially significant in a farm setting. Winter is when the narrator does not plant or harvest, it is when he rests or “sleeps” and his time has come. Similar to the cycle of life and death, human life has a beginning and an ending that is beautifully transformed into a metaphor for nature.
Frost’s poem is a depiction of what I value in literature. Namely, rhetorical concepts are euphemistically formulated through a description of seemingly simple activities. The literary piece encompasses descriptions of nature that create a physical image of the ethereal and cold surroundings and depicts one of the most important philosophical concepts, the notion of death.
Work Cited
Frost, Robert. After Apple-Picking. Poetry Foundation, 1915. Poetry Foundation. Web.