After Apple Picking..

After reading the poem "After Apple Picking," written by Robert Frost, I have realized many hidden messages. Beginning with the title of the poem, you can ensure that the farmer is seeking to find out what is the next step after everything is done. What's the next move in life? Shall it be death or shall it be retirement? If the poem was to be named "Toward Heaven Still," we could have a clear possibility that he's planning to die and hopefully make it to heaven. Or if the title was to be named "Barrel that I didn't fill," we could suggest that he was missing an important aspect in his life. But no, the title is After Apple Picking, so we are question what's next.

                                     
From the poem, you can ensure that the secret message is a man that is reflecting his life and what did he really accomplish. The "apple picking" metaphor is referring to the work he did over his lifetime, but he doesn't feel like he conquered anything as it says "there's a barrel that I didn't fill." Maybe this barrel is representing something he wanted to do his whole life but never got the chance to or something was refraining him to do so. Marriage? Having a family? Learning to swim? Who knows, but the mission was not completed but he's wrapping up his life, so there's doubt that he will get to it.



When reading, a couple of things I visualized was the "long two pointed ladder's sticking through a tree/Towards heaven still." I just picture a ladder going straight into the sky and a man climbing up to get to the promise land. Another image is line after that that proceeds to say "And there's a barrel that I didn't fill." To connect with the first image, he is still climbing the ladder to get to heaven, and as he's looking down, he reflecting his life, realizing that one thing wasn't  fulfilled. But it doesn't matter anymore because he has thrown in the towel. Another image is line 8 where is says "The scent of apples: I am drowsing off." I picture a man being poising by the smell of apples that it's killing him. Since he's worked so hard, he pretty much exhausted and can't bare anymore of the work.