After+Apple-Picking


 * After Apple-Picking

by Robert Frost

MY long two-pointed ladder’s sticking thr ough 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. || 5 ||
 * 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 || 10 ||
 * I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough || ||
 * And held against the world of hoary grass. || ||
 * It melted, and I let it fall and break. || ||
 * But I was well || ||
 * Upon my way to sleep before it fell, || 15 ||
 * And I could tell || ||
 * What form my dreaming was about to take. || ||
 * Magnified apples appear and disappear, || ||
 * Stem end and blossom end, || ||
 * And every fleck of russet showing clear. || 20 ||
 * 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 || 25 ||
 * Of load on load of apples coming in. || ||
 * For I have had too much || ||
 * Of apple-picking: I am overtired || ||
 * Of the great harvest I myself desired. || ||
 * There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, || 30 ||
 * 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 || 35 ||
 * 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 || 40 ||
 * Long sleep, as I describe its coming on, || ||
 * Or just some human sleep. ||

Study Aids

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