After Apple Picking Critical appreciation:
Critical Appreciation:
The apple picker has stopped working because he is very tired and exhausted. He is seemed to be having felt drowsy and dreamy the morning when he looked through a sheet of ice lifted from the surface of water trough. No he feels sleep coming on , but wonders whether it is a normal , end of sleep or something deeper.
Literal Meaning of Poem:
Literally , the poem , ‘ After Apple Picking” gives the glimpse of a farmer’s life. Hi is picking apples with his family in harvest season. It is nearing the end of farmer’s day. and even though the harvesting of the day has not finished, he decides that his job has finished already. The farmer then starts dozing off and starts dreaming about life. He dreams about his work , of many apples being picked up by the farmer and his family during the harvest season. He feels the pain and fatigue after great harvest. The farmer then dreams of sight of apples falling onto the ground , which would be of no value and sent to the cider-apple heap. During this whole dream , the poet cleverly users four of the main senses to portray the image of the dream. Eventually the farmer falls into deep slumber like woodchuck.
Metaphorical meanings of the poem:
The metaphorical meaning of this poem is firstly suggested by title ” After Apple Picking”. As you can see , the title starts with the word ‘ after’ implies that something will happen after this apple-picking. The apple picking’ itself I think is a metaphor for life. The first and second line indicates that the poem may be about life after death , in heaven. During the dream , I believe that the apples may actually be a metaphor for opportunities in my life. Many opportunities can arise , then disappear if we have not taken them. There are many things we can do with our life. There are also many opportunities or instances in life where we may not succeed , and this may be represented by the fallen apples. The use of ‘ apples ‘ in the poem also relates to the poem of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Therefore I think that the entire poem is trying to be a metaphor for life , and may be life in heaven.
Literally quality of the poem:
This is rhyming poem that follows no preordained rhyme scheme. After rhyme scheme. ” After Apple-Picking” is basically iambic , and mostly in pentameter , but line-length variants abounds. They keep the reader on her toes , awake , while the speaker drifts off into oblivion.
Throughout the poem , both rhyme and line-length are manipulated and varied with subtlety. The mystery of the rhymes when will they come and how abruptly keeps words and sounds active and hovering over several lines. We find the greatest separation between rhyming end–words at the poem’s conclusion. Sleep comes seven lines after its partner , heap , and in the interim sleep has popped up three times.
The harvest of apples can be read as a harvest of any human effort. The sequence and tenses of the poem are a bit confusing and lead one to wonder what is dreamed.