"After Apple-Picking" by Robert Frost

# 12

This poem is an interconnected system of symbols. The apples aren't really apples, the woodchuck not really a woodchuck, and the pane of glass in line 9 could mean more than a pane of glass. I don't believe I am stepping outside the "cone-zone" when I say that the apples which the speaker talks about "load on load of apples coming in" represent all the experiences the speaker has acquired. As described in the dream from lines 18- 36, the speaker has grown "overtired" from apple-picking, symbolizing a weariness with life. The "strangeness from sight" comes from growing old which the speaker "got from looking through a pane of glass" (line 10) or watching life go by. All of the apples, good and bad, were used for growth and were not thought to be wasted, for the speaker says "there were 10,000 fruit to touch, Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall." He/ she obviously cherishes the experiences, but is now tired and old with age and experience.