=/ After Apple-Picking

After Apple-Picking is a poem of a man who has worked long and hard for his whole life and his work is coming to an end either because of winter or the end of his life. The apples he is picking represent what he has accomplished in his life. He mentions barrels he hasn't filled and apples he hasn't picked upon a limb which represents the things in life that he has not done which he doesn't seem to sad about. Then the man grows tired and starts to dream. He dreams of all of the apples he has picked which may represent the things he has done in life. He has worked hard because he mentions the ache in the arch of his foot from the ladder. He hears loads of apples coming in also representing the many things he has done but says he is tired of apple picking or the life he has lived. He mentions tens of thousand of apples or things he could have done that he did not touch that are worthless to him because he did not do them. 

1)The author uses in depth description of both the apples and the trees and smells of them. He mentions his ladder sticking through the trees, the stems, blossoms and the way the limbs bend. He describes where and why his feet hurt form the many years of picking apples. The emotional responses he revokes are the feelings of being in an apple orchard picking apples possibly getting tired and sore from straining on a tall ladder.

2)The speaker doesn't seem to feel like he has done his work poorly or well only that he has accomplished a lot saying that he hears the rumbling sound of load on load of apples but also feels that he did not accomplish many things. He probably once found enjoyable but now he is tired of apple picking as he says he has had too much.

The speaker switches to present tense because his dream or sleep is what is happening to him at the moment. The next event in his life will be what he is talking about in his tired and dreamlike state. The experience in the dream is described much more precisely and covers more of what the speaker has accomplished rather than talking of how tired he is.

4)The speaker thinks of sleep as ether death or the end of his work. He feels that he has picked a huge amount of apples or done many things and is tired and is looking forward to going to sleep.

5)Since the ladder is pointing towards heaven it could represent that he has come to the end of his life and is going to die and possibly go to heaven. The seasons of the year may represent what the man has done. He has picked apples during the time they grow and now that winter is coming his job is done and it is time for him to go to sleep. The harvesting represents the things that the speaker has done during his life and now that he has done so many things, even if he has not done many of the things he could, and that he is done harvesting and is ready to be done.  Pane of Glass? Essence?

The sleep of the woodchuck is that of winter. Woodchucks hibernate when they cannot get anything done and then wake up when the weather is good again.....I need help Fielding