The coming semester is looming fast.
"And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
The rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in"
I no longer look forward to listening to the sound.
I no longer as passionate as before to not let the apples fall.
1987 has taken its toll on me.
I know when February appears I will drag my feet to my apple orchard
"For I have had too much
Of Apple-Picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired"
After Apple Picking speaks to me each time the semester begins and ends. It brings meaning to me as I have impossible expectations of myself and others. But I guess dream small and you will not be disappointed. In your reading of After Apple Picking, do you empathize with the speaker? How does the poem speak to you?
I do empathize with the speaker in this poem because it relates us to our life experience that involves our mental process for achievements. When we strive for something in our life, we work very hard until we are excessively tired. The process of using energy to achieve a goal can cause us to feel physically and mentally exhausted. When our physical body and mental health overload with energy being spent, we will stop and question ourselves the reasons why we strive so hard to achieve our goals. It does happen to us when we reach certain age. Probably at the age of twenty, we will list a few goals that we want to achieve by twenty five. From twenty five to thirty, we set different goals to be achieved. However, one of the weaknesses of human is never satisfied with the attainment. We may wish for something all the time but once we get it, we will crave for something else. That is human nature. The sense of satisfaction once we achieve our goal would not last long. So I believe that dream small enables us to get happiness more easily and it works!
ReplyDeletei guess sometimes our expectations are above our abilities and we sometimes expect too much from others as well. we should bear in mind that even with impossible dreams or small ones we should not give up till to achieve our goals. we live on our dreams otherwise we cannot continue anymore and it would be the end of our life. so, i think having beautiful dreams doesn't matter how big or small they are are better than not having any.
ReplyDeletei do empathize with the speaker as i sometimes do not look at my strength and week points. however, we need some break but we should not give up.
Yes Yes and Yes. It happens to me when I dream big of losing enormous kilos and it never happen. It's beyond my ability. For example, I told myself, I'm going to loose 20 kilos in a month. It's foolish. I should start dreaming small.
DeleteThis poem is about life but its focuses are what are in between, the missed life experiences and the regret that we left with.These apples that the speaker is referring to can be said to represent life experiences, that we missed Or it could be something that we didn't learn or reach but wanted to learn or reach.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it is better to have small dreams that we can achieve them easily rather than having big dreams that can not be achieve or even hard to gain, and then at last we feel regret for not having them.
Having the expectations from something or someone is good to a certain extend because it is when we know the direction we want to head to. After Apple Picking can be related to certain parts of me. When the narrator mentions the apple, in my opinion, he is talking about the opportunities in life. As how the speaker regrets because he left some apples, there were times where I was given the opportunity and regretted because I didn’t make full use of it. I could empathize with the speaker because I feel the same way too. There were times when I made use of the chances given and gained success out of it, in which has been portrayed in this poem when the speaker dreams of the many apples he had pick.
ReplyDeleteThere are fond memories in life that we sometimes ponder upon. There were the good old times when I didn’t have to worry about paying for expenses, taking up responsibilities (not that it’s a bad thing, but still), worrying about the future and things like that. As the narrator mentions that he has the scent of apples, it can be conveyed as he remembering the good times he once had - just as saying how the narrator’s life was good. Just as how I would relate of having the worry-less life once had and now there’s every reason to be worried off – the future, to get a car, to settle down, to get a job, etc..
And it’s scary at times when I read the poem and it actually reflects upon the things that do not occur to you at the moment but when given deep thoughts, it’s actually something worth pondering upon. There are certain things which I fear and have concerns over, but had not paid attention to. It’s when I am finally all settled down, getting prepared to go to bed and that’s when it hits you! The things that were at the back of my mind throughout the day sink into reality when the day ends. Acknowledging the moment is a good thing because knowing what will happen and the consequences it brings helps me to be prepared- relating it to the speaker of how he is concern over the fact that death is approaching him.
ReplyDeleteAlthough he knows that someday he will have to go, he doesn’t want to leave the fond memories he had.
In this very symbolic poem, Frost contemplates his life's achievements and his hard work by using the metaphor of a hard day's work of picking apples and a dreamy sleep afterwards:
ReplyDelete"For I have had too much
Of apple-picking; I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired."
The poem is densely metaphorical. Frost's life was full of achievement which is symbolized by the hard work of apple picking. He also had a hard life in which many tragedies occurred. In the poem I believe the speaker represents Robert Frost who is contemplating his life and what it will be like when he dies. Some of the major symbols are the barrels representing his fulfilled and unfulfilled ambitions:
"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."
The season of winter and sleep both represent the later stages in one's life and death. The most important symbol is, ofcourse, the apple. I believe that it represents the activities and opportunities in life. The speaker says with regret that he left some apples, meaning that many opportunities in his life have been passed up, but he also dreams of the many apples he did pick:
"And I keep hearing from the cellar-bin
That rumbling sound
Of load on load of apples coming in".
This represents the many achievements and good times that he was fortunate enough to enjoy.
This classic poem I believe is a grim contemplation on the events of his life and his regrets and guilt he feels for the way he lived. Overall this poem is laced with many metaphors and its symbolism echoes the influences of rural life and nature in Frost's life ultimately making it a great poem.
Do you have regrets and guilt for the way you lived? Hmm...
In this poem apple seems to me a metaphor for dream. All the apples may refer to a big dream or each apple may refer to small dreams. I do empathize with the speaker. I think these are the goals of life which we set them in our dreams that make us alive and motivated to live. It does not matter the goals are big or small, even when I myself try to achieve one of my dreams and make it real, as I tried to do my best, after that I feel overtired. Whether my dreams are big or small I get bored after reaching it. But this tiredness is something sweets which makes you to repeat this process again and again. At that point of time you may feel overtired and give up, but after forgetting the rough times and seeing the results of your hard working, you may get motivated to set other goals or continue to reach rest of your dreams. However, there is no doubt that the bigger your dreams, the more you have to try, and the more you get bored. But this is the result which makes you refresh and energetic again. Also, we can plan in our mind to reach our dreams step by step to avoid tiredness, but it is not possible all the times. Finally, I can say that, we are human and we should not expect too much and beyond our abilities from ourselves. We may get success or not, but the important point is that we know that we did our best all the times. We have to set times for ourselves to feel free and enjoy the present time, and not just overloading ourselves for following our dreams all the times. We should consider that, it is important to rest and try to use the best from each moment of our lives and not just thinking about the future. Mentally and physically we need to rest.
ReplyDeleteWhat if we dream small and we do achieve small, but deep down we know we are capable of dreaming big. Just maybe afraid that by dreaming big, expectations will grow and that we won't be able to keep up to the expectations??? So that's why we hinder ourselves or going further???
ReplyDeleteWhen you are young and energetic and full of ideals, to not dream big is a crime. When you crash you have the youth to bounce back and start another dream. But when you are more than half a century wiser(old), to crash below from this big bubble could be fatal! So for citizens who are entering the second cycle of a child's stage I would recommend to dream small. If you crash you can still pick up the pieces and mend the broken bones to start another small dream. Aha..aha...we need to interweave dream with reality. But--I have had too much--of Apple-Picking
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that we need to interweave dream with reality. I think we need to also dream according to our ability. Doing things beyond ability will put us in difficult situation. Also, in every stage of our life, we will have different dreams.
ReplyDelete