Close Reading A Poem

After Apple Picking 

By~ Robert Frost

Robert Frost was a honorable poet of his time. His poem After Apple Picking is one of those wonderful pieces of literature that you can savor and maybe regurgitate later! Close reading this poem provides for a better understanding of it and its author.

First Impression:

Frost paints the mystical and congratulatory scene of an apple harvest that is exhausted and tucked in for the winter. The objects from which the harvest is capable cradled into their homes, some still in trees. Apple fragments and aftermaths spread around the harvesting areas grounds and even an apple or two left behind in the bows of a far off tree. One worn harvester seeing the last days work done and finished, seemingly filled up with his share of the harvest, happily tucking him self in for the long winter months to come. Of his dreams an endless commotion of apple picking detail, all the way up to the sound of the thuds given by the piling of apples in the cellar. His sleep, maybe compared to that of the woodchuck, pushed into deep slumber by nothing other than the hustle and bustle of an average year picking apples for a living.

 Close Read Impression:

1.  The poems title works directly with the text by informing the reader about what they are going to read. It immediately gives you the scene of being done picking apples, because its titled "After Apple Picking." You could be easily mislead by the title had it read "Before Apple Picking" because its not about before apple picking its about after.
2. Fleck and russet are two misunderstood words from the text. Fleck means "A tiny mark or spot." Russet means "A dark brown color with a reddish-orange tinge." It helps to understand these words before reading the text.
3.  The Poem rhymes very cleverly. Instead of directly rhyming one word after the other, Frosts rhymes tine in at the end of sentences with the ends of others. repeatedly hear through out the poem are the sounds "ll","ght","ss","ar","red","th".
4. What literally happens in the poem is not so different after the close reading. Basically, there is a man done with harvesting apples for the year, whom has had his fair share. He is admiring his work all tucked up for the winter, and he tucks him self away for the night to sleep possibly as long as a wood chuck after all his hard work. The reader is lead to believe that this is happening on the apple farm, there is nothing to prove or disprove this. maybe even the place is the mans own home. the only person in the poem is the one man whom has finished his apple harvest.
5. there are many different images produced in the readers mind in this poem. Firstly the beautiful apple field. Secondly you imagine the some what disastrous scene of what is left over after the harvest was over. Following is the picture that the farm is tucked up for winter, and everything is buckled down safe and sound for the next season to arrive. Fourth seen is the image of the harvester worn out and fast to sleep and his dreams of apple picking detail. Over all you get the entire picture of the whole Harvest being completed. 
6. The authors name is Robert Lee Frost. He was born in San Francisco, California in 1874 on March 26th. Named after the famous confederate General. Parents of Frost were Isabelle Moodie Frost, and William Prescott Frost Jr. Family separated while Frost was very young. Father died of Tuberculosis in 1885. Frost Published Poems in the high school news paper. He taught school. He worked in a Textile mill. Frosts first professional publication was "My Butterfly." 
7. I believe the over all tone of this poem is of a proud accomplished and finished type. Frost goes to give the reader the impression that all the work of the harvest has been done, and not a second too short. the reader gets the feeling that the harvester is happy to be finished, and that he is proud of his work. you get the sense of accomplishment in this text very strongly. Frost uses enlightening and upbeat words to uplift the tone of the text like:  Heaven, Essence, Scent, Well, Dreaming, Magnified, Bend, Sleep, Done, Winter.
8. The poem has not tell tail formal structure that the reader can pick up on. This is good however because poems can be hard to read because of some structures, and having none here you get the freedom feeling from the flow of the text, it is smooth and doesn't get the reader mixed up. 
9. There seems to be tension in the poem but not from any kind of conflict. Towards the end of the Poem, when the author is describing the dreams the harvester is having of the laborious apple picking, it comes off as intense apple picking detail, which is like the conscience of the person bring back the tension of the apple harvest.
10. Three resonating things from the poem are: "Essence of winter sleep is on the night," "and not let fall. For all," "just some human sleep."

My first impression of the literal scene going on in this poem did not change after the close reading, however my understanding of the author and poem in general did.I did not know all those fact about frost until i looked them up, and I did not know what he meant by "fleck or russet" until i looked it up. I might have noticed a bit of structure after my first impression, but realized there is no structure at all to the poem, rather it as almost just written in simple sentences just as any other writings. the way frost uses rhyming in this poem is clever and unique and is a better way of rhyming when compared to directly rhyming a word one after the other.   

Robert Frost will always be one of Americas best poets. His work is worth studying, and the way he gets his message over to the reader is worth every penny you spent past what you bought. Close reading other poems might reveal subtle changes in their overall generality, might we all have a go at this?