After Apple-Picking

"After Apple-Picking" is a poem by American poet Robert Frost. It was published in 1914 in North of Boston, Frost's second poetry collection. The poem, 42 lines in length, does not strictly follow a particular form (instead consisting of mixed iambs), nor does it follow a standard rhyme scheme.

Summary
The poem describes a pastoral scene of New England life in autumn. The narrator is recalling their day spent picking apples on a ladder. Throughout the poem, the narrator expresses a desire for rest, using phrases such as "I am drowsing off" (8) and "I am overtired" (28).

They reflect on their mortality, and whether they will ever again wake up and have the opportunity to pick apples. The poem concludes with the narrator ostensibly falling asleep.

"One can see what will trouble

This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.

Were he not gone,

The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his

Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,

Or just some human sleep."

- Robert Frost

Versification
The poem's first line is in iambic hexameter, the second is in iambic dimeter, and in the third line shifts to iambic pentameter. The majority of the lines continue in iambic pentameter. In lines 13-17, the meter alternates between iambic pentameter and dimeter. The remainder of the poem is composed of variations on the iambic meter, containing iambic pentameter, trimeter, dimeter, and monometer.

The rhyme scheme of the poem is inconsistent beyond the first few lines. Lines 1-4 follow an ABBA rhyme pattern, lines 5-6 follow CC, and lines 7-9 follow DED. After this, however, there is no standard pattern, with lines instead rhyming sporadically.

Interpretation
Scholarly interpretation of the poem often focuses on themes of sleep, dreaming, and the somber conclusion to the piece, in which the narrator wonders if their oncoming sleep is a normal slumber, or a "long sleep." The varying meter of the poem is thought to be indicative of the narrator's fitful state of mind as they drift off to sleep. The rhyme scheme of the poem is similarly scattered, lending itself to a similar interpretation.

The process of picking apples is symbolic through both the action itself and the apparatus used. The apple-picking ladder is a symbol, both metaphorical and real, that points to a destination beyond itself, while the act of picking apples is a metaphor for the power of labor. The power of labor is its ability to go beyond natural occurrences such as the shifting of seasons, or bodily exhaustion.