34 pages 1 hour read

Robert Frost

After Apple-Picking

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1914

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Introduction

“After Apple-Picking”

  • Originally Published: 1914
  • Form/Meter: 42 lines; loose iambic pentameter
  • Literary Devices: Metaphor, tone, assonance, consonance
  • Setting: An apple orchard
  • Central Concern: On a sleepless night, the speaker reflects on a day of apple picking. Just before succumbing to sleep, the speaker wonders if they will have a regular night’s sleep or a “long sleep.”
  • Potential Sensitivity Issues: Reflections on death

Robert Frost, Poet

  • Bio: 1874-1963; born in San Francisco; sold his first poem, “My Butterfly. An Elegy,” in 1894; attended Harvard University for two years but left due to illness; farmed for nine years before giving it up; taught at various universities over the course of his life; often considered “too traditional” for the Modernist poets of his time; became one of the “major American poets,” according to Harold Bloom; known for realistic depictions of rural life and command of American colloquial speech; only poet to ever receive four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry; awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 1960; named poet laureate of Vermont in 1961; nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature 31 times
  • Other Works: A Boy’s Will (1913); North of Boston (1914); Mountain Interval (1916); New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes (1924); Collected Poems (1931); A Further Range (1937); A Witness Tree (1943)