Mowing
Robert
Frost
There was never a sound beside the wood but one,
And that was my long scythe whispering to the ground.
What was it it whispered? I
knew not well myself;
Perhaps it
was something about the heat of the sun,
Something,
perhaps, about the lack of sound—
And that
was why it whispered
and did not speak.
It was no
dream of the gift of idle hours,
Or easy gold at the hand of fay or elf:
Anything more than the truth would have seemed too weak
To the
earnest love that laid the swale in rows,
Not without
feeble-pointed spikes of flowers
(Pale
orchises), and scared a bright green snake.
The fact is the sweetest dream that labor knows.
My long scythe whispered and left the hay to make.
After Apple-Picking
Robert
Frost
My long
two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's
a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it,
and there may be two or three
Apples I
didn't pick upon some
bough.
But I am
done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
The scent
of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from
looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed
this morning from the drinking trough
And held
against the world of hoary grass.
It melted,
and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,
And I could tell
What form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and
disappear,
Stem end
and blossom end,
And every
fleck of russet showing clear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the
ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep
hearing from the cellar bin
The
rumbling sound
Of load on
load of apples coming in.
For I have
had too much
Of
apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the
great harvest I myself
desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in
hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck
the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
As of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep
of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not
gone,
The woodchuck could say whether
it's like
his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.
hyperbole
personification
metaphor
assonance
consonance
alliteration
onomatopoeia
imagery
simile
Both poems
are an allegory to death and being overtired of working.
Guide for responding
Literature
and your life
Readers
Response
Something that
we can see from our own lives reflected in the poems is the feeling of being
tired of working, the feeling that we are completely drowning in our
responsibilities, that we forget to enjoy life.
Thematic
focus
I believe it
truly depends on the person's condition. For example, according to both poems,
he is overthinking everything he has done because he is not satisfied with it.
They know death is approaching, and all they've done is work from sun to sun.
Check your
comprehension
1. The sound
of the long scythe whispering to the ground
2. ”The
fact" referring to the fact that even when someone can dream and
fantasize, the only thing
that matters
is work.
3.
a. The scent
of apples and the essence of winter.
b. The feel
strangeness and ache.
c. the
rumbling sound of load on load of apples
Critical
thinking
1. Because
thanks to the setting, we can compare the reality that the protagonist faces to
the fantasy he dreams of, cause the setting keeps him on the ground, reminds
the protagonist of the work, and allows the reader to feel that contrast.
2. He is
completely drained of his work, and now that death is approaching, he feels
that all his life was worthless. The cause of this was a lack of equilibrium in
his life. And now that it comes to an end, he feels how the balance of life is
inclined to work and nothing else.
3. Even when
many people think that doing homework is not as tiring as doing physical work,
these two are truly similar feelings. Both drown the person`s energy and leaves
one with the feeling that we don't have the means to go on, as students, we
usually feel mental fatigue. Both have more in common than we might think.
4. As a
disadvantage, we can point out is that working outside is tiring, due to
conditions like the burning sun or the heat, but also these same conditions are
an advantage because they give a different environment to work, relieving
stress and making work easier.
Plot
Conflict: Both
protagonists are fatigated from work and how they feel that death is knocking
on the door and they are not satisfied with their lives.
Climax: When
they both admitted that they were going to die and there was nothing they could
do to avoid it.
Resolution: In
the end, both men just accepted the fact they were going to die, waiting for
death between fear and tears.
By Manuela Orozco, Step 10.
