After Apple Picking

In the poem "After Apple-Picking" by Robert Frost there is a lot of repetition of the word sleep. Through this repetition the meaning of the word changes, it gets the deeper, Frost changes the meaning of the word from normal sleep to eternal sleep. After we understand this we see that the poem is not really about a farmer just being tired of his work but about him dealing with his mortality and his end drawing near.

Conclusion: From this observation i concluded that the speaker in the poem is ready for death. There are hints that give this away, in the poem he says "i am overtired" he is referring to his life, he is too tired for life and he wants to "sleep". He also talks about all the apples that are left to pick and how he just wants to leave them there and just rest.

Question: In the poem the speaker does not really state whether he is ready for death or not, from what you have read in the poem do u think he is ready for death or does he fear it?

An Army Corps Advances.

Thanks to Perrine, I realized that this poem is a very literal poem as he stated.

I also realized these army men are walking to a war, not actually in it. If they are walking to a war they should hear a bunch of guns going off yet as stated in line 2, they heared only one.

Conclusion: Going against Perrine I wondered and wondered why only one shot, not many. I figured maybe Whitman making you focus on that single shot to get it engraved into your brain, instead of many shots making it harder to imagine.

Q1: Why do you think Whitman wrote one single shot, not many?

The Night March

Again, thanks to Perrine, who explained what the Night March actually was, it really made sense to be stars. There is nothing to contradict what Perrine said. When I think about stars, though I get the connotation of something pretty in the skies at night, not a marching army.

Conclusion: I began to imagine all the things you can compare stars to: like a sea of fish, or something of that sort. But definitely not an Army marching.

Q2: Why do you think Melville chose to use an army as a metaphor for stars?

Welcome to our Blogspot!

Hello, students!
This is the right place if you're looking for Ms. Srigley's AP English Literature blog posting location! We will begin posting blogs Monday, September 14, with Josi's post on Beloved. It's not easy being first, so make sure you support her by participating in her topic. Plus, it's an assignment! :-)

Have fun!
Ms. Srigley