After Apple Picking

This frost poem was easy to relate to as far as a day of apple picking. I found it interesting how random and abrupt the rhyme schemes were. It always felt sort of off to me. I feel like maybe he did this intentionally (well of course he did). Mainly because this poem lets of the idea that he is describing a sleep an after sleep of a day of apple picking. Dreary, drowsy, sort of confusing. Probably trying to put us in his place, make us feel just as drowsy and confused even if we really are not. This poem was exhausting to me. I had a hard time following the lines at first and then I realized that making me feel this way was meant to happen, in order for me to understand the poem in my own way. I would interpret this poem as describing some sort of a "final sleep" an after death sleep. Frost says in the beginning about his ladder being pointed toward heaven still...however there are things left undone " And there's a barrel that I didn't fill." I'm not sure if I'm on the right track here but it sure feels like I am on some sort of path. I am not sure at what point the sleep actually begins this is part of the confusion of the poem. He speaks sometimes as if he were already asleep and dreaming but then at other times speaking as if he were still picking apples waiting for the sleep to come on. Frost's poems were much like this in all always using something sort of environmental or even common to get his message out. I liked that. This certain poem is definitely about life. Troubles, triumphs, possibilites etc...but maybe feeling as if time is running out. Maybe he is feeling too late.

Now that I've had time to think after class I wanted to add a little more to my post... I am sticking with my original ideas but now that my ideas were expanded on I see there is more to this than I read before. I see Frost contemplating life and death. He is doing this throughout the poem while at the same time making it seem so simple. He is working daily and getting tired. He notices his ladder points towards heaven but he also notices he still has an empty barrel to fill. He goes on about how tired he is and how things are slipping and he is becoming so tired. He explains that he is off the ladder but can still feel the pressure in his foot from being on the ladder ( a reminder of heaven). This poem is very intriguing I can't even count how many times I have read it. There is so much emotion and so much to relate to as well. In the end when Frost speaks of the woodchuck I don't think he is literally comparing woodchuck sleep to human sleep. He is once again bringing his environment even closer. The woodchuck could be the illusion of his exhaustion and he is having trouble distinguishing a Long sleep and a human sleep.