Explain the symbolic significance of the poem after apple picking
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After Apple-Picking Questions and Answers
by Robert Frost
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What symbolism can be found in the poem "After Apple- Picking"?
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JAY GILBERT, PH.D. eNotes educator | CERTIFIED EDUCATOR
"After Apple Picking" is a poem about life and death, the veil that separates these, and the connection between death and sleep. Its key symbol, the apple, is one which has represented life in many cultures—the apple recalls the Norse golden apples of Idun, which the gods must eat in order to remain young and immortal. In the same way, the speaker "desired...a great harvest" of apples, until weariness overcomes him: "I am done with apple-picking now." For as long as he picked the apples, he was truly alive, but as he stops picking them, he feels himself "drowsing off."
The speaker also wonders whether the work of his life has been worth it. Having spent a life picking apples—here, the apple-picking represents the various toils of any life—he now thinks of them all going "surely to the apple-cider heap/As of no worth." The works of his life, the imagery suggests, will disintegrate and be forgotten.
The "long-pointed ladder" sticking through "a tree towards heaven" is a clear..
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