KSEEB Solutions for Class 8 English Poem Chapter 11 After Apple-picking

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Karnataka State Syllabus Class 8 English Poem Chapter 11 After Apple-picking

After Apple-picking Questions and Answers, Summary, Notes

Textbook Questions And Answers

Comprehension

(A) Answer the following questions in one sentence each:

Question 1.
Why does the poet say that he is done with apple picking?
Answer:
The poet says that he is done with apple-picking because he was tired and it was night.

Question 2.
What meaning is conveyed through the expression, “instep arch keeps the ache”?
Answer:
The writer means that he can even feel the pressure of the ladder on the bottom of his foot.

Question 3.
What does the poet see in his dreams?
Answer:
The poet sees the apples appear and disappear similar to how the real apples would disappear into the barrel after he picked them.

Question 4.
Which phrase in the poem suggests that the poet has had a bumper harvest?
Answer:
“Load on load of apples coming in”.

Question 5.
What helps the poet in balancing his weight on the ladder-round?
Answer:
The “Ladder-round” is one of the round steps on an old fashioned wooden ladder, the ladder it was leaned against the bending branches of the apple tree which helped him to balance.

Question 6.
What is the meaning of “fleck of russet”?
Answer:
“Fleck of russet” means the brownish – reddish specks that dot the surface of the apples.

(B) Answer in three or four sentences each:

Question 1.
Why can’t the poet rub strangeness from his sight?
Answer:
The poet goes to get drinking water from his trough early morning. As the night was cold the top layer of the water in the trough had freezed. He picks this sheet of ice and looks out at the world through it. He finds that the world outside is melting as the ice melts in his hands. Hence he wants to get rid of this strangeness from his sight and rubs his eyes but it does not go thereby a strange fear engulfs him.

Question 2.
What is implied by the phrase, “just some human sleep”?
Answer:
The speaker is tired after harvesting. He thinks he could sleep for three months straight, like that of a woodchuck. Hence he wonders whether he will sleep like a normal person or like a hibernating creature, such as a woodchuck.

Question 3.
What does the repeated reference to “sleep” in the poem imply?
Answer:
The repeated reference to ‘Sleep’ in the poem implies that the speaker is very tired after harvesting and he needs rest.

Question 4.
“For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.”
Explain the above lines.
Answer:
The speaker is sick of picking apples. He is very tired after a great harvest. The speaker used to be really excited about the harvest, but now he’s had too much of a good thing.

Question 5.
“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.”
What worth is the poet referring to?
Answer:
The poet had to worry about not letting the apples drop. Even if the apples were in perfect condition otherwise, without ‘bruises’ on ‘stubble’ they would be considered worthless if they touched the ground. And would be thrown in the heap of apples that would be used to make cider.

Question 1.
Give the central idea of the poem.
Answer:
The title after apple – picking illustrates that the poem is of a dying man who is looking back on his life, represented by apple picking and of his regret for unaccomplished desires. The old man only wishes that he could do more before he dies, hoping it would give meaning to his life. He has probably been waiting for the apple harvest all summer but now there are just so many apples to deal with that he has grown sick and tired of picking them. He feels that he could almost sleep for an entire winter. But he is also worried that his sleep will be haunted by dreams about apples and dropping things and worst of all the cider.

Question 2.
Justify the title of the poem, “After Apple-picking.”
Answer:
The title after apple – picking illustrates that the poem is of a dying man who is looking back on his life, represented by apple picking and of his regret for unaccomplished desires. The old man only wishes that he could do more before he dies, hoping it would give meaning to his life. He has probably been waiting for the apple harvest all summer but now there are just so many apples to deal with that he has grown sick and tired of picking them. He feels that he could almost sleep for an entire winter. But he is also worried that his sleep will be haunted by dreams about apples and dropping things and worst of all the cider.

Question 3.
The poet has achieved a bumper crop at the cost of considerable physical and mental exhaustion. Elaborate.
Answer:
The speaker had a bumper harvest, he says he is overtired of the great harvest impossible quantity (or) incredible quantity of fruit as a possibility and nearly achieved it at the cost of physical and mental exhaustion.

After Apple-picking Additional Questions and Answers

I. Four alternatives are given for each of the following questions/ incomplete statements. Choose the most appropriate one.

Question 1.
Why was the speaker not able to pick all the apples?
a) Because he was tired
b) Because it was getting dark.
c) Because he was lazy.
d) Because it was getting dark and he was almost tired.
Answer:
d) Because it was getting dark and he was almost tired.

Question 2.
What did the speaker see in his dreams?
a) he saw the apple tree full of fruits
b) he saw the green thick gross
c) he saw the earth melting in the ice.
d) he saw the nature through a pane of glass.
Answer:
d) he saw the nature through a pane of glass.

Question 3.
What would happen if the apple falls down while picking them from the tree?
a) They would get spoiled.
b) They would go into the heap for making cider.
c) They would be washed and put into the barrel again
d) They would be eaten by the speaker
Answer:
b) They would go into the heap for making cider.

II. Match the words in column ‘A’ with verbs in ‘B’ and with the phrase/ words in ‘c’ later form meaning full sentences.

A	B	C
1. The doctor	Chased	ice cream
2. Children	blew	the patients
3. Birds	rings	the train
4. The guard	sails	out nails
5. Passengers	trim	nest on trees
6. Peon	like	the mice
7. A ship	fell	the whistle
8. We should	treats	the ball
9. The child	boarded	on water
10. The cat	build	down the stairs

Answer:

The doctor treats the patients
Children like ice cream
Birds build nest on trees
The guard blew the whistle
Passengers boarded the train
Peon rings the bell
A ship sails on water
We should trim our nails
The child fell down the stairs
The cat chased the mice.

III. Read the extracts and answer the questions that follow:

1. And there’s a barrel that I didn’t fill.

Question a)
Who is the speaker here?
Answer:
The poet Robert Lee Frost

Question b)
What was the filling in the barrel?
Answer:
Apples

Question c)
Why does he say he didn’t fill?
Answer:
The harvest was plenty and he was tired.

2. I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight

Question a)
Who is the speaker here?
Answer:
The poet Robert Lee Frost

Question b)
What was the strangeness he could not rub?
Answer:
As he saw through the ice he felt as though the world was melting and falling down.

Question c)
What time of the day was it?
Answer:
Early morning in the winter.

3. Magnified apples appear and disappear

Question a)
Who feels that the apples appear and disappear?
Answer:
The poet Robert Lee Frost

Question b)
When did the apples appear and disappear?
Answer:
In the poet’s dream.

Question c)
Why does he feel that they appear and disappear?
Answer:
The poet was very tired after picking them as it was a night he lie down to sleep. In his dreams he imagines to see the apple, pick them and drop them into the barrel.

4. And I keep hearing from the cellar bin The rumbling sound

Question a)
Who is referred to as ‘I’?
Answer:
The poet Robert Lee Frost

Question b)
What is the sound he hears?
Answer:
The barrels of apples being unloaded

Question c)
What do you mean by rumbling?
Answer:
making continuous deep sound.

5. The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his long sleep.

Question a)
From which poem are these lines taken?
Answer:
After apple picking

Question b)
Who’s sleep is compared to whom?
Answer:
The poet compares his sleep to that of a woodchuck

Question c)
What do you mean by woodchuck?
Answer:
A groundhog that sleeps in winter.

After Apple-picking by Robert Lee Frost About Author

Robert Lee Frost (1874-1963) was a famous American poet. He dealt with themes from rural life in New England, USA, using the setting to examine complex social and philosophical issues. His important poetical works are A Boy’s Will (1913), North of Boston (1914), Mountain Interval (1916), New Hampshire (1923), Collected Poems (1930), A Further Range (1936) and A Witness Tree (1942). As a popular and oft-quoted poet, Frost was honored with the prestigious Pulitzer Prize four times. His poetry is largely traditional in terms of meter and exudes lyrical grace.

‘After Apple-Picking,’ published in the collection ‘North of Boston,’ is a well- known poem on man’s encounter with the natural world, probing the dilemma of his existence. Here the poet gives his reflections on boredom and drudgery in the aftermath of the task of picking apples. The work-weary apple-picker is unable to enjoy his life amid the pristine beauty of Nature, trapped in the utilitarian ways of modern civilization. Composed in free verse, the poem is remarkable for its mood and intercity. It is also an anti-thesis of modern civilisation., marked by the culture of excessive work for increasing material gain to no end.

After Apple-picking Summary in English

The speaker has been picking apples all day up on a ladder that pointed towards heaven. He hasn’t picked every last apple but night falls in and he is tired. He remembers the strange vision he had that morning when he looked at a bunch of grass through a sheet of ice he removed from a drinking trough. It looked like the world was melting and then he dropped the piece of ice. He may or may not have fallen asleep as he has these thoughts. He thinks of how he will dream about apples.

He is getting sick of harvesting apples, there are so many of them and he has to be careful not to let them fall. If an apple falls, it has to be chucked into the heap for making cider. And the cider apples are considered almost worthless.

He imagines that these thoughts about worthless apples and dropping things will haunt his sleep. He wonders if it will be a long, deep sleep like the hibernation of a woodchuck or it will just be a normal “Human Sleep”.

Glossary:

barrel: a large round container, made of wood or metal
stick through: opening up against the tree
essence: fundamental quality
cider: juice made from apples
pane: sheet of glass
done with: tired of
drowsing off: feeling sleepy
rub off strangeness: make one feel uncomfortable
skim: remove the substance floating on the surface of the liquid
drinking trough: a long narrow open container, used for holding food or water for animals
hoary: white or grey due to snow on it
magnify: to make bigger than the actual
fleck: a very small area of colour
russet: reddish-brown; used here for the colour of apples
arch: the curved part of the bottom of one’s foot
sway: swinging movement
cellar: small rooms below the ground level used for storing things
rumbling: moving forward, making a continuous deep sound
cherish: to hold dear
bruised: damaged; injured by a scratch
spiked: something sharp and pointed
stubble: the lower parts of corn-plants that are left above the ground after a farmer has cut the crop
woodchuck: a small animal with short legs, which lives in holes and is found in North America