Discuss the various images in ‘After Apple Picking’

“After Apple-Picking,” at a first glance, may seem to fit into the pastoral genre of poetry. After all, it contains several items stereotypical of the genre – it focuses on the seemingly idyllic activity of New England apple-picking. In addition to imagery of apple-picking, there is other imagery of countryside life, such as “looking through a pane of glass / I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough / And held against the world of hoary grass” (10-12).

The pane of glass, which represents an illusory world with thin temporal boundaries, presents an indirect way for the speaker to take in his sensory environs when “held against he world of hoary grass” (12). Therefore, it represents an illusory perspective, one that is easily “melted, and I let it fall and break” (13). In that sense, the pane of glass is like the illusion of choice represented by the apples, which eventually causes the speaker to realize, “I am overtired / Of the great harvest I myself desired” (28-29). Like with pane of glass, the speaker has allowed his own desire for the apples to also “fall and break.” The word “fall” used when describing the pane of glass additionally emphasizes the blending of different temporalities. After all, the word fall also relates to the speaker falling asleep – “But I was well / Upon my way to sleep before it fell, / And I could tell / What form my dreaming was about to take” (14-17). Therefore, the imagery of the pane of glass is a representation of the speaker’s mental ability to move across time between different mental states and mix the attributes of each.