Robert Frost Imagery

Robert Frost wrote an interesting poem entitled, "After Apple-Picking." This poem has several fascinating images that cause the reader to wonder what he is really trying to convey.

Through this poem, Frost could possibly be trying to suggest death. This death might either be of life itself, or of writing poetry. There are several times in the poem that he refers to winter, and just as spring is a symbol for life, winter is the image of death. First, he states that the, "essence of winter sleep is on the night." This could hint at two types of hibernation, creative or physical. Another image of winter is the "pane of glass," actually a sheet of ice, he lifts from the drinking trough. He also uses the word hoary, meaning snowy, in reference to the grass. One last mention of winter is at the end when he makes a remark about the woodchuck's long sleep, meaning his hibernation for the winter months.

This poem can also be viewed as one large metaphor. When looking at it that way, it seems plausible to say that it is a suggestion of the effort involved in writing poetry. The harvesting of the apples can be seen as his attempts in creating poetry. The apples that fell to earth could possibly be poems that he is going to throw away because they are not good enough to keep, just as bruised apples are not good. The barrel that is not full could suggest that he has not finished as many poems as he had hoped to have done. When he states that, "I am done with apple picking now. Essence of winter sleep is on the night," he could be suggesting that he was considering taking a break from writing poetry, using the winter sleep, or hibernation in this case to represent a creative hibernation.

The feelings of fatigue and desire for rest are evident in the images in this poem. Frost uses both images and descriptions of physical discomfort to reinforce this throughout.