Monday, November 16, 2009

An ode to "Apples" and "After Apple picking!!!"




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.
===============================================================
This is one of Robert Frost's most famous poems. One of my personal favorites.
In fact this is one poem which inspired me to think in terms of poetry.
I never thought I would pen down a poem :) those days. But I guess in those happy go lucky days in school there was nothing to inspire a poetry!!!

(The poem has so much to contemplate in depth about one's career, the path one chooses, about burn outs and the question of "Is one really happy with what one does?" "I leave it to my dear readers to contemplate more on that and share your views".)

I specifically remember this poem cause we had a section in our exam paper called "Poem Essay" and I loved this poem so much that I wrote in "Apple" flowery words( about the author, and the intent of the poem.

What resulted was unexpected :( My English teacher told me. "I want to see your parents".

Oh oh so much for Apple picking. I guess I had picked a stale Apple :(

My English Teacher then told my mom "Your son will not pass his English exam this way". My mom said " But his English is so good and I don't see any problems with his essay". The teacher said " Yes thats precisely the problem!!! Your son writes in such a high language and for every essay he writes, I have to spend an extra half an hour reading his paper and trying to interpret it. He writes at an M.A English Literature level. And people evaluating his paper will never have that patience. Let him write in a simple language so that he gets a pass mark". I was elated in a way but also terrified that I might fail in English :( in my X board(bored) exams .
I was asked by my mom and the teacher to tone down and simplify my language so that people would understand !!!! hmmm it was like asking a Yamaha RX-100 to ride like a Hero Honda...Bajji Bonda :)

Second thing I like about the poem is because of Pomme(Apples)
See Pomme gave birth to Poem(crazy analogy...but worked in my case).
I love Apples and hope to do some Apple farming someday :) if not own one.
May be someday as Robert frost puts it in his another famous poem..."Way leads to way..."
I might end up in some farm(or my own)picking apples and when my instep arches pain
I would recite this poem about pommes and I am not sure if I would actually like apples then :)

Hats off to Robert Frost and his poem on pommes:)

Let me go and get a juicy apple to eat(like Tom Sawyer after a "hard day's work" )!!!