The quest for knowledge and death are both accentuated in the poem "After Apple-Picking." Robert Frost uses many symbols to represent a deeper meaning of his poems. The dictionary definition of regret is, sorrow caused by something beyond one's power to remedy. This seems to be the state of our speaker, for he states reflectively, "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". We have established that the apple represents both life and death, and in this instance may we go even further and say that these particular apples represent life experiences, these experiences were m

The description of the boy swinging from branch to branch could also be construed as a metaphor: a boy's actions swinging from birches represents his learning through feeling out situations and making mistakes while growing. Of course, a boy will learn of balance and heights while climbing trees, but there is an underlying admission that he is growing up. Frost uses the natural side of things in climbing trees to symbolize growing up and becoming a man. The description of the boy at play, "He learned all there was/To learn about not launching out too soon", "...climbing carefully"; "Kicking his way down through the air to the ground" shows many traits of learning through experience. The clever choice of words in "with the same pains you use to fill a cup" he prompts the reader to remember the pain of growing up with all of the new challenges and tasks associated with growing up. Because of Frost's commitment to using nature to help people explore them, it is not surprising !

us that he dreams "magnified apples appear and disappear, stem end and blossom end, and every fleck of russet showing clear". Through this passage we see that he is reflecting back on his life. Some experiences are clearer than others. Perhaps some are more significant now than they were at the time. By "stem end and blossom end", we see that our speaker feels he has examined the experiences thoroughly and can now see the "russet" parts of the skin, or the bruises on the apples, the bruises meaning mistakes made.

he did not know that even mistakes have worth, even if just to learn from them. The reason for the speaker's sudden surge of regret seems to be looming death, for he states in the very first line, "My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree toward heaven still". This reference to heaven is the first evidence that the speaker thinks he is going to die. At this point in the poem the references to death, or the end of life, are rather peaceful. "But I am done with apple-picking now. Essence of winter sleep is on the night". Though the words, "winter", "sleep" and "night" typically represent death, they do not represent a violent or scary death. This diction reflects a sort of peace in the speaker's words, yet as the poem nears to an end he states, "One can see what will trouble this sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is". The speaker again states "and I keep hearing from the cellar bin the rumbling sound of load on load of apples coming in". The fact that this "rumbling!

that Frost wrote this poem, he would be turning forty years old. Though the theme for this poem certainly is not "mid-life crisis", it is, however, an individual looking back on his life with regret.

issed. Or perhaps knowledge that was not gained, but was desired. The barrels are empty, and seeing this, regret is felt. Nevertheless, "but I am done with apple-picking now", tells us that our speaker feels he can no longer remedy the empty barrels. He is now at a reflecting point for he tells!

simply wants a better place to be, a place where reality and stress can disappear for awhile.

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The last eight lines seem to be the most important of the poem. These eight lines are an array of jumbled idea pointing to either the speaker's world of reality or the speaker's world of fantasy. Starting these last eight lines is the idea of "Earth's the right place for love," but the speaker does not stick with this idea. He/she then turns to t

Some common words found in the essay are:
Robert Frost, Frost's Birches, Apple-Picking Birches, robert frost, Frost Option, eight lines, fantasy world, drinking trough, world fantasy, life death, speaker feels, winter sleep night, swinging branch branch, reflection drinking trough, cider-apple heap worth, reflection drinking, swinging branch, climbing trees, boy swinging branch,
Approximate Word count = 2361
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)