What does the apple picker do in Frosts poem “After Apple-Picking”?
accessteacher Teacher High School – 10th Grade eNotes Editor The persona of this poem has passed the time of active work and harvesting, and now in the poem we can see that he is reflecting upon his work and the harvest. The speaker also seems to be drifting in and out of sleep and dreaming, which imbues this poem with a richly symbolic (one might argue allegorical) meaning, touching on the themes of hard work, success and satisfaction, or perhaps life and death. “The great harvest” that was once valued by the speaker in this poem could be said to be the wealth, recognition and achievements that the speaker has laboured hard to gain throughout his life. It is interesting therefore, that the speaker says he is “overtired” of this great harvest that he once wanted. Perhaps this reflects that the speaker has too much of what he wanted and now feels neither joy nor satisfaction, but exhaustion, from his achievements. This can be seen to be symbolic of how mankind works very hard to get som
