Robert Frost’s poem After Apple-picking contemplates exhaustion, toil, and the shift from activity to repose, depicted through the speaker’s physical and mental weariness following an extended harvest. The piece, published in 1914, uses striking imagery of a ladder, fruit, and the rhythms of nature to examine themes of fulfillment and residual exertion.
A concluding stanza mentions the poem’s copyright status, noting Frost’s death in 1963 and its later entry into the public domain in regions with shorter copyright durations. The poem’s form and mood embody Frost’s typical fusion of pastoral scenes and philosophical contemplation.
Robert Frost,
After Apple-picking
(1914)
“ Magnified apples appear and disappear,Stem end and blossom end,And every fleck of russet showing clear.My instep arch not only keeps the ache,It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend. ”
Robert Frost,
After Apple-picking
(1914)
“ For I have had too muchOf apple-picking: I am overtiredOf the great harvest I myself desired. ”
Robert Frost,
After Apple-picking
(1914)
“ Were he not gone,The woodchuck could say whether it’s like hisLong sleep, as I describe its coming on,Or just some human sleep. ”
