After Apple Picking - Robert Frost

After Apple Picking - Robert Frost

Alysia Mercado, Elise Raymond, Giselle Mejia, Harisa Afzali

Contemporary Period

Summative Statement

& Questions

- Modernism reflected a loss of faith in traditional values & american dream

- American dream: America is a "promised land," progress is good, independence triumphs, and anything is possible with self trust and belief.

In "After Apple Picking," Robert Frost achieves in portraying the concept of nature appealing to the senses as it has a healing impact on the mind and body.

After Apple Picking - Poem & Interact

Is it success to achieve or to relish and enjoy?

Is the effort of executing a task worth the time it requires?

Major Authors & Works

The Speaker

- Ezra Pound, TS Eliot and EE Cummings were the first to create poems inviting new ways of seeing and thinking.

- A few African American lyric poets: James Johnson, Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, & Claude McKay

- Literary poets: Sylvia Plath, Julia Alvarez, Billy Collins, Robert Lowell, John Berryman & Elizabeth Bishop

The speaker is a man who has been picking apples all day - his life being the "still" ladder. Drifting off sleepily, the speaker is curious as to whether his sleep will be a "long" one or simply a "human sleep," for he is "overtired" & doesn't have the will to pick on.

Literary Devices - Diction

Reflection

Robert Lee Frost

The language is colloquial and similar to the familiarity of talking to oneself in one's mind: "But I am done apple-picking now," indirectly states that he seeks to discontinue "this sleep of [his]."

"After Apple-Picking" is one of Frost's many poems which did not follow the traditional literary styles of the Modern Era. The simplicity and directness of the poem contrasts with the dominant movements in English poetry of the nineteenth century - Romanticism & Victorianism.

- American poet who was well known for his realistic depictions of rural life & his command of American colloquial speech

- wrote in traditional rhyme and meter against modernist trends

- regarded 20th century New England to examine complex social and philosophical themes

THEME

American Moderns

- Modernism: bold new experimental styles/forms of art

- Succeeded the realists

-Took place between WWI and WWII

- Time when Americans valued the 7 elements of modernism

Cemented between the ultimate goal and its overbearing effort to be obtained, is this dissatisfaction or simply life? In the poem "After Apple-Picking," Robert Frost traces an exhausted apple-picker nearing the end of his harvest in an extended metaphor. In doing so, Frost reveals that when tiresome efforts outweigh the dream, people would rather desire death.

7 Elements of Modernism

1. Bold experiments in style and form

2. Rejection of traditional themes

3. Sense of disillusionment and loss of faith in the American Dream

4. Rejection of sentimentality and artificiality

5. In favor of a flawed hero rather than an ideal one

6. Interest in the inner workings of the human mind

7. Revolt against spiritual debasements

Literary Devices - Imagery & Allusion

The Title

"After apple-picking" describes the work and effort put into attaining goals and knowledge. The title itself is vague almost begging the question itself - what comes after life/death?

- "Magnified apples" alert a sense of being crushed and "ten thousand thousand" ignites a feeling of futility.

- Apple picking alludes to Adam and Eve & the forbidden fruit while the ladder alludes to Jacob's ladder in the Book of Genesis.

Literary Devices - Symbolism

Literary Devices - Tone

The reflection of the water or "pane of glass" the speaker skims in the beginning resembles a mirror which symbolizes a reflection of his life. The "apples" symbolize the speaker's knowledge, work, & achievements, and the "long sleep" symbolizes death.

- The tone of the speaker is reflective and contemplative of "whatever sleep it is" he will have.

- The author maintains a reflective tone as well, exemplifying his lost idea of what comes after "apple-picking" (life) through the speaker's reflection.