William R Henderson After Apple Picking, A Farmers struggle.

In its simplest, narrative fashion, were introduced to a speaker, a farmer, who after a long day of apple picking, dreams of his days activities, only magnified and in a more misshapen and dream-like form. In the poem, Frost presents us with a human, conscious and lifelike worldly experience, of the farmer, clashing with what is beyond his worldly experience, biblical allusions, and the importance and repetition of the word, sleep. In the poem, the farmer struggles with his worldly conscious and what life is like beyond his worldly experience and into that in which he dreams of. In the opening lines the narrator says, My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree toward heaven still, And there's a barrel that I didn't fill. Beside it, and there may be two or three Apples I didn't pick upon some bough. These lines reveal a natural respect to what is beyond the apple orchid or apple farm he is at. Its nearly a confirmation that he knows he is conscious and living but beyond the apple tree is a dreamlike destination, in the heavens. The struggle with worldly and a dreamlike state is just as evident and confusing to a reader in the lines, But I was well Upon my way to sleep before it fell, And I could tell What form my dreaming was about to take. Here two contradicting states of being can take place. One, The farmer here is in-between dreams or simply in the state in which one dream ends and another begins, or the farmer has indeed slept the day away. With consciousness being left so wide-open in these lines, this is where the repetition of the word sleep and its meaning is of utmost importance in deciphering

Frosts poem. The final lines of the poem, One can see what will trouble This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is. Were he not gone,The woodchuck could say whether it's like his Long sleep, as I describe its coming on, Or just some human sleep, leaves a few nagging questions for readers. Here Frosts speaker is just as clueless as we are as to what sleep is and what sleep will be like. We see the terms long sleep and woodchuck, an animal who hibernates in winter commonly found in the northeastern region of the United States. Frost poems and other poems alike would have sleep referring to death and knowing our modernist themes we can easily draw references of sleep to death, and/or resurrection to that of the harvest, re-birth, and spring. The repetition of sleep and the confusing states of consciousness points to the idea that the farmer is about to disembark from his world and life and enter death. Dreams of the apples are all but a memory or hallucination to the farmer who is moments away from entering death and leaving his life's work as a farmer behind. The lines And there's a barrel that I didn't fill Beside it, and there may be two or three Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.But I am done with apple-picking now, would suggest the farmer did not live long enough to fulfill a farmers duties for the next harvest but can be satisfied for most of the work, but not all of the work was done. Biblical imagery in this poem is very prominent. Jacobs dream and Adam and Eve come into mind when reading this story. In Genesis 28:!0, the Bible talks about Jacob and his dream. In his dream he sees, a stairway or ladder resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. This chapter of the Bible reminds readers that God is with you know matter what and even in your most desperate, lonely, and in needy times. Genesis reminds readers

that God is with everyone know matter what. Jacob, a man who had both deceived his father and his brother and was being chased out of town at the time of his dream, still felt Gods presence and commitment even in his most desperate hour. Jacob is very similar to our farmer in the poem. The lines, And there's a barrel that I didn't fill Beside it, and there may be two or three Apples I didn't pick upon some bough. But I am done with apple-picking now, could possibly reveal a farmer that is indeed desperate, lonely and feels like he did not meet expectations. Perhaps the steady goal labor of the years harvest has made our farmer desperate due to the intensity of the labor and hours he has put it. The farmer makes it more evident in the lines, As of no worth. One can see what will trouble This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is. These lines support a farmer who is tired and feeling worthless at the moment much like Jacob did when he was chased out of town after betraying his brother and father. Perhaps our speaker has betrayed something of significance as well. The farmer has betrayed himself in the lines, For I have had too much Of apple-picking: I am overtired Of the great harvest I myself desired. There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall. The farmer here is nothing short of disgusted with himself and the great harvest he once desired. What is the speakers great harvest? It could be the equivalence of the jackpot in farming terms, a great crop gathering that would bring him physical wealth, or perhaps harvest is also included in on the Biblical allusion as well. In Genesis 8:22, While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. Here we see the harvest represent something more than renewal, or regeneration. Here we see the harvest as something that must continue, something that must not be interrupted. The

farmer once desired to not be interrupted from his worldly life, to not worry about what is beyond the grave or sleep. The farmers great harvest was that to be immortal and to live life by each moment without thinking of mankind's untimely doom, that we all die and are taken from the earth. Another Biblical allusion comes in the lines, There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall. For all That struck the earth. Here we are presented with The Fall, in the Bible, refers Genesis 2 and 3, when Adam and Eve live in paradise with God. God tells them, in verse 15, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die. In verse 18, God speaks and says, It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. Perhaps our farmer is without a suitable helper, in a relationship with a woman, who could support him, or perhaps an assistant or assistants to help him gather his harvest. Maybe our farmer seeks a woman who would change his desired harvest, or quest for immortality. In chapter 3 of Genesis, The Fall, Eve is deceived by the serpent to take fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Here we can draw huge contrasts to both the serpent who did the deceiving and the woodchuck. God speaks in Genesis and says, Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. The woodchuck is an animal known for being a clean animal one that digs a special burrow apart from its shelter to poop in. God curses the snake here and says you will crawl and eat dust the rest of your life, a very dirty future. After God finds out about Adam and Eve he curses them and sends them out of paradise. In verse 19 he says, Since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return. This is Adam and Eve treated

with no worth, or The Fall of both Adam and Eve to Earth. Frost writes, For all That struck the earth, No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, Went surely to the ciderapple heap As of no worth. In chapter three of the Genesis, Adam names his wife Eve, the mother of the living. The farmer, here, is already without a suitable helper and a struggle with worldly conscious and what is beyond his worldly view. The mother of the living draws a very distinct like between these two allusions, the struggle with what is beyond his worldly conscious, or living conscious to what is beyond the living, or what lies in the great sleep in which our farmer is about to enter.