Stephenson Family Ties

AFTER APPLE -PICKING

by:Robert Frost

My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree

Toward heaven still.

And there's a barrel that I didnt fill

Beside it, and there may be two or three

Apples I didnt pick upon some bough.

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

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,

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.

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

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 fruit to touch,

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

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

Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,

Or just some human sleep.

can i just say that im lov'in the vivid descriptions here. how great a talent to paint such a picture in our minds with so few words. the details, and the rhyme....oh my, its like music.

i know that my folks would say that i have no idea what its like to really work, and its true. i've been enjoying a good and simple life. and i am always grateful. i'd just like to put in a plug for leading a balanced life as well. there is a time for work, and a time for play, and a time for sleep. "i am overtired of the great harvest i myself desired." havent we all felt this way sometimes?