AFTER APPLE-PICKING ANNOTATIONS L. 7. Essence of winter sleep-the environment is full of the intoxicating scent of apples. L. 9. I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight-as the apple-picker begins to drowse away, the familiar and the common begins to assume the dimensions of unfamiliarity and strangeness. He cannot rub or wipe off this film of strangeness from his eyes. L. 11. I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough--the ice which he had collected in the morning from the surface of drinking water in a trough, which is a long narrow vessel for watering animals. L. 12. Hoary grass-grass covered with frost or snow. In his drowsy haze, things appear new, strange and unfamiliar as they had appeared to him when he looked at them through the ice he had collected that morning. L. 20. Fleck of russet- every bit or spot of reddish brown colour on the apples. L. 21. Instep arch-the prominent upper part of the human foot near its junction with the leg. L. 34. Spiked with stubble--pierced or bruised with some stubble, still standing in the field. L. 38. Whatever sleep it is-a touch of mystery is imparted to the entire aura. The apple-picker is not sure whether his sleep is the ordinary sleep of human beings, or the long winter hibernation of creatures of nature like the woodchuck. (B) EXPLANATIONS WITH CRITICAL COMMENTS L1. 1-5 My long....some bough-The dramatic setting and initial commitment in tone is remarkable. “Pre-sleep and sleepy reminiscence of the day, condition all that is said and the speaker's first words show what form his dreamy talk will take.". L. 6. But I am....apple-picking now-The apple-picker is thoroughly tired and bored with apple picking. Fatigue and boredom gas he decides that he will have nothing to do with apple-picking. L. 7. Essence of winter sleep-The entire atmosphere is laden with sleepiness. L. 18. Magnified apples-Though the apple-picker is seeing the apples against the sky with daylight accuracy and clarity, they appear to be magnified and enlarged. For him, they stand out as symbols for great dream like spheres. L. 19. Stem end and blossom end-This repetitious way of describing the apples over and over again helps in blurring the precise details and giving the whole set up a metaphoric dimension. L. 30. There were....to touch- This line instantly brings to mind the line in The Daffodils- 'Ten thousand saw I at a glance.' L. 40-41. The wood chuck......long sleep-This is the closing metaphor of the poem, and as such, it adds to the strangeness of 'winter sleep' by bringing in the non-human death-like sleep of hibernation. L. 42. Or just some human sleep-“The poem is absorbed with states between not only of winter sleep, but of all similar areas where real and unreal appear and disappear. After Apple-Picking illustrates exactly Santayana's remark, that the artist is a person consenting to dream of reality. The consent in this instance is implied in the perfection of the form." EXPLANATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO CONTEXT L. 7-12. Essence of winter....hoary grass-- In these lines there is a very fine and vivid description of the atmosphere in the orchard. This description by the apple-picker gives us the very touch, the very feel of the atmosphere in the orchard. This description is sensuous and becomes alive because the words he chooses are just apt for the description and create an impression of drowsiness. Untermeyer rightly comments that it is a vivid memory of experience that the reader absorbs it physically. I feel it is not a memory of an experience it is much more-in this description the apple-picker is reliving the experience. The smell of the apples is too overpowering for him. He also senses the quaintness of the world as it appears to the exhausted worker. The scent of apples in this poem reminds us of a similar expression "drowsed with the fume of poppies" in Keats's Ode to Autumn. The apple-picker feels himself pervaded with an oppressive feeling of drowsiness. Here again we can trace a similarity between this drowsy sleepiness and the drowsy numbness of Keats' Ode to Autumn. The entire landscape and the atmosphere around him assumes a mysterious halo and is misted by over with a rare quality of strangeness. These qualities transform the scene completely and the apple-picker can neither get rid of quality nor can he comprehend the transformed world. As he unknowingly steps into the realms of this world of sleepiness the narrative of the about the ice skimmed from the trough mingles gradually with the dream the time references of the tenses become fused and confused. Brown comments on the rhythm and images of the poem. "The meaning implied by the self-hypnosis and dreamy confusion on rhythm is finely suggested in the image of the world of 'hoary grass' the morning that anticipates the night vision. This blurring of experience focuses in the central metaphor of the poem, essence of winter sleep. Essence is both the abstract ultimate nature of sleep and the physical smell, the scent of apples a metaphysical image in T.S. Eliot's sense of the term. Fragrance and sleep blend, and sight and touch merge in. “I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight." L1. 37-38. One can....sleep it is--"In these lines tone and rhythm work together beautifully, implying a great deal in relation to Frost's metaphor. The slight elevation of "One can see" recalls the more mysterious seeing of the morning just as the almost banal lyricism of "This sleep of mine" sustains the rhythm of dream-confusion. The rest of second line barely iambic, barely rhyming, casual and rough, assures us that the speaker has at least one toe in reality"
AFTER APPLE-PICKING
ANNOTATIONS
L. 7. Essence of winter sleep-the environment is full of the intoxicating scent of apples. L. 9. I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight-as the apple-picker begins to drowse away, the familiar and the common begins to assume the dimensions of unfamiliarity and strangeness. He cannot rub or wipe off this film of strangeness from his eyes. L. 11. I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough--the ice which he had collected in the morning from the surface of drinking water in a trough, which is a long narrow vessel for watering animals. L. 12. Hoary grass-grass covered with frost or snow. In his drowsy haze, things appear new, strange and unfamiliar as they had appeared to him when he looked at them through the ice he had collected that morning. L. 20. Fleck of russet- every bit or spot of reddish brown colour on the apples. L. 21. Instep arch-the prominent upper part of the human foot near its junction with the leg. L. 34. Spiked with stubble--pierced or bruised with some stubble, still standing in the field. L. 38. Whatever sleep it is-a touch of mystery is imparted to the entire aura. The apple-picker is not sure whether his sleep is the ordinary sleep of human beings, or the long winter hibernation of creatures of nature like the woodchuck.
(B) EXPLANATIONS WITH CRITICAL COMMENTS
L1. 1-5 My long....some bough-The dramatic setting and initial commitment in tone is remarkable. “Pre-sleep and sleepy reminiscence of the day, condition all that is said and the speaker's first words show what form his dreamy talk will take.".
L. 6. But I am....apple-picking now-The apple-picker is thoroughly tired and bored with apple picking. Fatigue and boredom gas he decides that he will have nothing to do with apple-picking.
L. 7. Essence of winter sleep-The entire atmosphere is laden with sleepiness.
L. 18. Magnified apples-Though the apple-picker is seeing the apples against the sky with daylight accuracy and clarity, they appear to be magnified and enlarged. For him, they stand out as symbols for great dream like spheres.
L. 19. Stem end and blossom end-This repetitious way of describing the apples over and over again helps in blurring the precise details and giving the whole set up a metaphoric dimension.
L. 30. There were....to touch- This line instantly brings to mind the line in The Daffodils- 'Ten thousand saw I at a glance.'
L. 40-41. The wood chuck......long sleep-This is the closing metaphor of the poem, and as such, it adds to the strangeness of 'winter sleep' by bringing in the non-human death-like sleep of hibernation.
L. 42. Or just some human sleep-“The poem is absorbed with states between not only of winter sleep, but of all similar areas where real and unreal appear and disappear. After Apple-Picking illustrates exactly Santayana's remark, that the artist is a person consenting to dream of reality. The consent in this instance is implied in the perfection of the form."
EXPLANATIONS WITH REFERENCE TO CONTEXT
L. 7-12. Essence of winter....hoary grass-- In these lines there is a very fine and vivid description of the atmosphere in the orchard. This description by the apple-picker gives us the very touch, the very feel of the atmosphere in the orchard. This description is sensuous and becomes alive because the words he chooses are just apt for the description and create an impression of drowsiness. Untermeyer rightly comments that it is a vivid memory of experience that the reader absorbs it physically. I feel it is not a memory of an experience it is much more-in this description the apple-picker is reliving the experience. The smell of the apples is too overpowering for him. He also senses the quaintness of the world as it appears to the exhausted worker. The scent of apples in this poem reminds us of a similar expression "drowsed with the fume of poppies" in Keats's Ode to Autumn. The apple-picker feels himself pervaded with an oppressive feeling of drowsiness. Here again we can trace a similarity between this drowsy sleepiness and the drowsy numbness of Keats' Ode to Autumn. The entire landscape and the atmosphere around him assumes a mysterious halo and is misted by over with a rare quality of strangeness. These qualities transform the scene completely and the apple-picker can neither get rid of quality nor can he comprehend the transformed world. As he unknowingly steps into the realms of this world of sleepiness the narrative of the about the ice skimmed from the trough mingles gradually with the dream the time references of the tenses become fused and confused. Brown comments on the rhythm and images of the poem.
"The meaning implied by the self-hypnosis and dreamy confusion on rhythm is finely suggested in the image of the world of 'hoary grass' the morning that anticipates the night vision. This blurring of experience focuses in the central metaphor of the poem, essence of winter sleep. Essence is both the abstract ultimate nature of sleep and the physical smell, the scent of apples a metaphysical image in T.S. Eliot's sense of the term. Fragrance and sleep blend, and sight and touch merge in. “I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight."
L1. 37-38. One can....sleep it is--"In these lines tone and rhythm work together beautifully, implying a great deal in relation to Frost's metaphor. The slight elevation of "One can see" recalls the more mysterious seeing of the morning just as the almost banal lyricism of "This sleep of mine" sustains the rhythm of dream-confusion. The rest of second line barely iambic, barely rhyming, casual and rough, assures us that the speaker has at least one toe in reality"
This is notes of Calcutta University sem -3
Innovative and interesting. Thank you.