After Apple –Picking Robert Frost “Upon my way to sleep before it fell, And I could tell What form my dreaming was about to take.” There is no question here of tones playing against a traditional form; rather, an original rhythmic form grows out of the dramatic setting and the initial commitment in tone. Pre-sleep and sleepy reminiscence of the day condition all that is said, and the speaker's first words show what form his …showed first 75 words of 727 total…

…showed last 75 words of 727 total…to the woodchuck's sleep and back to the initial balance of tones in 'sticking through a tree / Toward heaven still.' The poem is absorbed with 'states-between,' not only of winter sleep, but of all similar areas where real and unreal appear and disappear. 'After Apple-Picking' illustrates that 'the poet is a person consenting to dream of reality.' The 'consent' in this instance I believe is implied in the perfection of the form.