After Apple-Picking Theme

After Apple-Picking Theme

 Robert Frost has written his poem, ‘After Apple-Picking’ as a nature poem in the year of 1914. It was published in North of Boston. The poem is written in iambic pentameter. The poem is written describing the beautiful season of autumn showing the grave importance of nature. The poem has rich symbolical and contextual prospects that it imbibes lots of importance from the readers. The poem is not only important from the literary context but also it provides a picture of natural world. The poem bears both a deep psychological inner meaning and at the same times a surface meaning. The contextual and thematic significance of the poem establishes the poem among the elite ones.

The poem can be interpreted from various perspectives which range the poem from a simple nature lover’s perspectives to critically rich perspective. Simply the poem is set in rural atmosphere and it can better be said a pastoral spirit. The apple picker is a figure which only acts as a medium to regulate the optimal natural view of the poet’s mind. The pantheistic philosophy of nature is more and more evolved around the theme of the poem. The apple picker is exhausted after having a whole day tiresome schedule of picking apples. Here, nature is nothing but a platform where the poet in the form of the apple picker inhaling the sweetness of the ambience. The wind is beautifully melted with perfect aroma of ripe apples. The surrounding area is full of greenery and the apple picker is standing in an orchard. Such a beautiful element forces us towards the poem and amuses our senses.

It is always seen that romanticism makes a special scope for delineating the larger part of the natural world and for that reason more often nature becomes invariably bold in all sorts of poems whether written by romantic poets or other than romantic poets. The biblical allusion is there in the poem where we find once that the apple picker is upon a two pointed ladder supporting the apple tree. The instance is taken from the Bible where we find that The Bible. Jacob was a famous character who once dreamt that a ladder is resting upon a tree and the angles are ascending and at the same time descending on the ladder. The Lord was standing at the top of the ladder and ordering Jacob that he and his descending will be bestowed with the land on which they are in. The apple fruit also carries another part of deep significance just because it trails behind the age of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It was mutual sin committed consciously by Adam being allured by the sin of Eve.

Some parts of the poem that the poet has prominently put into it as an integral part. The stereotypical part of the poem on which we can rely is the issue of death portrayed in the poem. The winter night is a part of that thought of death. The mention of woodchuck is also another instance of long sleep means death. The evening is part of the day which is also meant as the end of life or as the end of romance. The apple picker is feeling sleepy that can also be related as the end of human life. So, all these things relevantly indicate the gloominess of death. The theme of success is also prominent here in the poem.

Also Read:

• After Apple-Picking as a Pastoral Poem
• Symbolism in After Apple-Picking

But the theme, of success is really in the mist just because our mind is bisected between the thoughts of whether the apple picker really enjoying the day of hard work after picking thousand and thousand fruits’. The poet is quite candid in this respect to show that the apple picker is tired or exhausted after picking apples for the whole day and at the same time the apple picker is feeling exhausted and is feeling sleepy like woodchuck. He does not want any apple to fall outside of the ‘cellar bin’. The sense of sleep is so strong here that even the apple picker cannot resist. It has a strong influence over the apple picker like hemlock which he can never avoid.

“My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains

My sense, as though of hemlock I had drunk,”

(Keats’ “Ode to a Nightingale“)

The apple picker’s mind is totally out of his control as because he cannot drive his mind of his own. He standing on earth but looking upwards which clearly points out that there is long conflict between dreamy world and the real world. The apple picker cannot determine whether he is authenticated with reality or he is flowing with the dream world. Nature has strong influence over the mind of the poet as well as the apple picker. Nature plays the most vital role in the poem. It is not the apple but the ambience is rich with its varied performance as well as that set up in nature is really amazing. The nature with its healing power allures us towards a fine feeling of divine quality. The wind is enriched with the aroma of ripe apples. Here, not only the apple picker but also we as the general readers are overwhelmed with the positive vibes of nature. An extensive reading of the poem gives us the scope to revaluate the essence the romanticism William Wordsworth, John Keats as well as all other extensive romantic poets paved the path for the upper growth of romanticism on which Robert Frost built his career as a romantic poet. The poem not only maintains the arena of romanticism but also procures a number of natural elements that compel us to feel the vibes within us.

Human psychology is also an invariable part of this poem. Both joyous excitement as well as an extensive numbness rule over the mind of the poet through the apple picker. The apple picker cannot decide better be said we the general readers of the poem that whether the apple picker is enjoying his whole day work or missing the tome due to his numbness out of fatigueness.

However, we must regard the content of the poem from the point view of a reader that how finely the post draws the importance of nature and injects the color of nature within us all through the poem. The poem at least establishes the cordiality between human heart and the nature. The nature behaves as the means of inspiration to the poet which he enjoys through the apple picker. The apple picker is nothing but an incarnation of positive attitude of life. Nature is a source of inspiration which most perfectly falls upon the readers. Here, the poet, Robert Frost has justified with the theme of the poem. The theme of the poem is narrated through the careful handling of the poet. Nature is not only treated as the theme of the poem but also as an inspiration to the poet.