The Regrets of Time Gone By

The Regrets of a Time Gone By

Poetry is a language of understanding. The reader must be able to comprehend the various known connotations for words as well as be able to pick up on the uncommon and unknown meanings of words. Poets are masters of language. They constantly manipulate words to make a specific connotation fit the ideas and scenarios that they choose to describe. Therefore, poetry is a language that requires a reader to closely read and pay attention to certain aspects in order for he or she to understand the poet’s message. The poet, Robert Frost, takes the idea of a harvest and uses it as a metaphor to expound upon different aspects of life. In the poem, “After Apple-Picking,” Frost uses imagery, figurative language, and a reminiscent tone to demonstrate to the reader the various emotions and complications of life.

What at first glance from the title seems to be a poem about picking apples is really a metaphor about retirement. The first idea the poem illustrates is that the speaker has no true desire to depart from his work. His “long two-pointed” ladder that still rest upon the same tree “toward heaven still” is a metaphor symbolizing his reluctance to leave and accept that the day is coming to an end (line 1)(line 2). He becomes unable to fulfill his last day’s work as though the completion of the task would make the finalization too real. He mentions the “barrel the [he] didn’t fill” and refers to “some apples that [he] didn’t pick” that still hang from “some bough” as though he is leaving something behind that he truly cares about or some matter of unfinished business (line 5). The speaker struggles between feelings of regret and feelings of satisfaction as he ponders his accomplishments and the opportunities that he let pass him by in life. His emotions run the gamut from lament to fulfillment as he slightly regrets the fact that he is “done with apple-picking now (line 6).” He mentions an “essence of winter sleep” present in the air which is easily interpreted as a sense of hibernation or a long restful and peaceful slumber that is sure to come very soon (line 7). Grounding this poem in reality reassures the fact that it is after a long day, or era, and the speaker is reflecting on all that has passed him by in that time.

After his long period, he recalls the genesis of his journey. He ponders the beginning as he fails to “rub [a] strangeness from [his] sight (line 9).” He admires the surroundings through a “pane of glass” that distorts the images around him to appear as “hoary grass,” or an aged and respected landscape (line 10)(line12). He remembers the undying “scent of apples” that has stayed with him for so long and seems to be a comforting and relaxing scent (line 8). All of this reminiscing puts him into such a relaxed state of mind that he begins to drift off to sleep, or a deep state of calm peaceful relaxation.

During this peaceful slumber, he dreams. This dreaming state was long coming before he even fell asleep; and when he is sleeping, he dreams of what he did while awake and working. He dreams of “magnified apples” running all over with “stem end and blossom end (line 18) (line 19).” Even in his sleep, he feels the pains and pressures of his work as his “instep arch not only keeps the ache, / It keeps the pressure of a ladder round (line 21-22).” Four out of five of his senses are at work during his dreaming state as he sees the “magnified apples,” feels the “ache in his arch” and the “ladder sway as the bough bends,” smells the “scent of apples,” and hears the “rumbling sound/ Of load on load of apples coming in (line 18)(line21)(line 23)(line 8)(line25-26).” At this point, he comes to the realization that he has had too much of a good thing, too much of something that he truly enjoys, when he says “ I have had too much/ Of apple-picking (line 27-28).” He realizes that he can no longer do this job because he is “overtired’