KSEEB 8th English After Apple-Picking Poem Lesson Notes Summary Questions and Answers
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:
He is tired and feeling very sleepy. He has been picking apples non-stop for quite sometime.
Question 2.
What meaning is conveyed through the expression, “instep arch keeps the ache”?
Answer:
He has been climbing up and down the ladder to pick the apples and this continuous climbing and standing on the rungs of the ladder has resulted in his instep arches aching, and not letting go of the ache.
Question 3.
What does the poet see in his dreams?
Answer:
In his dreams, he sees apples appearing and disappearing nonstop. He could see apples in all the hues and shades of the reddish brown colour. He keeps hearing the rumbling sound of loads and loads of apples falling into the cellar bin.
Question 4.
Which phrase in the poem suggests that the poet has had bumper harvest?
Answer:
“Of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch”
The above line suggests the bumper harvest.
Question 5.
What helps the poet in balancing his weight on the ladder – round?
Answer:
His instep arch helps the poet in balancing his weight on the ladder round or rung.
Question 6.
What is the meaning of “fleck of russet?”
Answer:
The normal colour of apples is reddish brown – or russet or its different hues. As he has picked so many of them, he had seen all the different shades of russet – on the flecks of that colour.
(B) Answer in three or four sentences each:
Question 1.
Why can’t the poet rub strangeness from his sight?
Answer:
The poet has done enough apple-picking for the time being and was feeling very sleepy. The long winter sleep was encompassing him and pulling him down. The scent of apples was all pervading and adding to the drowsiness. He could not keep his eyes open and rub off the strangeness from his sight.
Question 2.
What is implied by the phrase, “just some human sleep”?
Answer:
The poet / apple picker had enough of apple picking. He is so tired that he was simply falling off asleep, dreaming about loads and loads of apples rumbling into the cellar bin. He was not sure how long he may sleep – whether like a hibernating woodchuck or like a normal human sleep.
Question 3.
What does the repeated reference to “sleep” in the poem imply?
Answer:
The repeated reference to sleep implies that the poet / apple picker is so tired physically and mentally, that a deep uninterrupted sleep was most welcome to him. Even when he drowses off, his dreams are again full of a apples and more apples. In reality, material craving for gain, robs one of peaceful sleep. This highlights the futility of hankering after material wealth in the modem civilization, foregoing other priorities.
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 poet/apple picker had desired to have a bumper crop. He must have spent sleepless nights planning and also working at his farm towards that. Of course he had achieved that, but it has also resulted in his extra work spending some more sleepless nights gathering the produce. He has become very much tired with work and lack of sleep. He feels for his folly.
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:
Plucked or directly removed apples are of greater value in the market. They will fetch a better price. The ones that have fallen off the tree, or dropped by the picker, either falling on the ground or on some thorny bushes, may get bruised or damaged. They will not fetch a good price. They are normally dumped together to make apple – cider, which is of lesser worth.
(C) Answer in four to six sentences each:
1. Give the central idea of the poem.
2. Justify the title of the poem, “After Apple-picking”.
3. The poet has achieved a bumper crop at the cost of considerable physical and mental exhaustion. Elaborate.
Poetic Devices
Speaking Activity
Writing Activity
Think it over
Things to do
8th English After Apple-Picking Poem Notes Question Answer Summary
This poem reflects on the boredom and tiredness the weary apple-picker feels after non-stop work. This is composed in free verse.
The apple picker has been working for days together, filling up barrels with freshly plucked apples, climbing up a ladder leaning against the trees. There is still a barrel to be filled and a few apples still hanging from the boughs.
He is fed up with this apple picking and is drowsing off. And his dreams are about apples appearing and disappearing and the ladder swaying as the boughs bend with the load. He could hear the rumbling sound of loads of apples falling into the cellar bin.
He himself had planned for a great harvest, towards increased material gain, which had resulted in his inability to enjoy his life amid the pristine beauty of nature, trapped by his own greed. Now he is ruing his folly, not at all enjoying picking apples. The fallen or damaged apples go into a heap for making apple cider.
He feels so sleepy, not sure if it will be a long one like a hibernating woodchuck on that of a normal human. The poem is an anti-thesis of modem civilization, marked by the culture of excessive work for increasing material gain, to no end.