Robert+Frost-+Selection+of+Poems

Courtesy-[]
==Born in San Francisco, Frost spent most of his adult life in rural New England and his laconic language and emphasis on individualism in his poetry reflect this region. He attended Dartmouth and Harvard but never earned a degree, and as a young man with growing family he attempted to write poetry while working a farm or teaching school. American editors rejected his submitted poems. With considerable pluck Frost moved his family to England in 1912 and the following year a London publisher brought out his first book. After publishing a second book, Frost returned to America determined to win a reputation in his own country, which he gradually achieved, becoming one of the country's best-loved poets. Unlike his contemporaries, Frost chose not to experiment with new verse forms but to employ traditional patterns, or as he said, he chose "the old-fashioned way to be new." Despite the surface cheerfulness and descriptive accuracy of his poems, he often presents a dark, sober vision of life, and there is a decidedly thoughtful quality to his work.==



__After Apple Picking-__
(North of Boston. 1915)

==Frost takes an ordinary experience and transforms it into a meditative moment, a philosophical musing. Apple-picking slides gradually away from merely harvesting fruit to considering how life has been experienced fully but with some regrets and mistakes. The reference to winter coming on feels like the presence of mortalilty. The question about what kind of sleep to anticipate suggests untroubled oblivion or possibly some kind of new life just as the woodchuck reawakens to fresh life in the spring after his hibernation.==

**Extension questions:**
== **“After Apple Picking” conveys the world as it is experienced by an exhausted laborer. What words, lines, ideas, or images in this poem make it clear that the narrator’s mind and body have been weakened by so much working? Where else in Robert Frost’s poems do you find the poet writing about labor and/or laborers. Finally, what does work itself mean to Frost—both poetically (as a subject to write about) and personally (as a part of life)?Try and find out other poems of Frost book that support your views.** ==

Comparison poem:
=** APPLES- **By //Laurie Lee//= = =