After Apple-Picking by Robert Frost

1.  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. Bough- a main branch of a tree

But I am done with apple-picking now.

Essence of winter sleep is on the night,

The scent of apples: I am drowsing off.

I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight

I got from looking through a pane of glass 

I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough

And held against the world of hoary grass. What is hoary grass? 

It melted, and I let it fall and break.

But I was well

Upon my way to sleep before it fell,

And I could tell

What form my dreaming was about to take.

Magnified apples appear and disappear, What are Magnified apples? Are they small?

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.

And I keep hearing from the cellar bin

The rumbling sound

Of load on load of apples coming in.

For I have had too much

Of apple-picking: I am overtired  It seems that the author is tired of apple-picking

Of the great harvest I myself desired.

There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, He is implying that there many fruits

Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.

For all

That struck the earth,

No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble, 

Went surely to the cider-apple heap

As of no worth.

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.

2. Annotations

• Stubble- the cut stalks of grain plants left sticking out of the ground after the grain is harvested 
• Pane- a single sheet of glass in a window or door

3.  The reason why I like this poem is because it is very deep when it talks about life. In the poem, the person is apple-picking and soon enough, he is tired of it but doesn't know if it is an end-of-the-day tired or something deeper, meaning that the person doesn't want to work anymore and wants to retire. Apple-picking is a metaphor for work in general and it is something that the person might not find interest in anymore. This poem appeals to me because it makes me think of life in the future, like will I ever get tired of working or will I keep going and make something of it. Personally, I am a hard worker and from reading this poem, I start to think more about working because when I go out into the world, I want to be known as a hard worker and not a slacker. 

4. 

• "This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is." - I like this line because this is when the person is not sure whether he is naturally tired or if he's just tired of working and thats something that really speaks to me
• "Of apple-picking: I am overtired" - is he really tired of apple-picking physically or just in general?
• "The scent of apples: I am drowsing off." - It seems that he is tired of smelling apples. This shows that he doesn't find interest in something that he's been doing for a while.