Disillusionment in After Apple-Picking by

Disillusionment in "After Apple-Picking" by Robert Frost & Perseverance in "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop Theme of Life Struggle: Poetry Analysis Literature is considered as one of the effective means through which real life is projected, and given various, subjective meanings and interpretations. Literature serves as the mirror that allow people to look into other people's, and even their own, lives, as expressed and interpreted by the artist.

Its effectiveness in conveying the dynamics of real life as it happens to the individual and society is highlighted in either prose or poetry form, or both. In this paper, discussion and analysis centers on the comparative analysis of two poems, "After-Apple Picking" by Robert Frost and "The Fish" by Elizabeth Bishop. These poems depicted the common theme of life struggle, although each poet focused on the explicating on this theme in its different and opposing dimensions.

While Frost demonstrated life struggle through disillusionment and hopelessness, Bishop's poem spoke of perseverance in pursuing life meaningfully. Utilizing the poetical techniques of symbolism and imagery, Frost and Bishop contemplated on this theme through their respective poems. In the texts that follow, the theme of life struggle is demonstrated, highlighting the similarities and differences in the works of both poets.

After Apple- Picking" is a poem that tells and illustrates the sleep and dream that the narrator had dreamed in the poem after he completed his activity for the day, which is apple-picking. The poem, aside from the narrative of the Voice of the story, illustrates effectively the difference between sleep as a physical activity of human beings, that is, sleep is discussed here literally, but sleep here is also a figurative element of the story.

Sleep in the poem's own terms meant death, a surrender to the life the Voice had after experiencing disappointments in life, a life resulting from mistakes and failures in life.

The poem's theme, primary plot, and use of tone and symbolism emphasized the point that Frost illustrated in the poem, which is to give us, the readers, an idea of how sleep is identified with death, and how life becomes precious to the narrator as he experienced his dream, and felt his impending death -- that is, giving up on the life struggle.

The narrator described the life he had through the following lines in the poem: "And there's a barrel that I didn't fill / Beside it, and there may be two or three / Apples I didn't pick in the bough / But I am done with apple-picking now." These lines illustrate how the man had lived his life full of regrets and unaccomplished goals and dreams in life ("..

there's a barrel I didn't fill..."), and how he resolved to end his pursuit for success in life, and face the death that is fast approaching his age, as was explicit in his line,.." I am done with apple-picking now." The almost-hallucinated tone of the narrator established the truth of his dream, and through his dream, the readers are able to discern his frustrations and aspirations in life.

The "thousand fruit" and "load and load of apples coming in" were used to emphasis the illusion the narrator has, which is actually a characteristic of dreams. Also, these phrases illustrate the fact that the narrator had wished in his dream for more opportunities to come in his life, despite the frustrations that he felt due to his past mistakes in life.

Thus, his tone conveyed a dream-like quality of hope, as he embarked into his sleep, and contemplates whether to live his life anew, or let fate take its course by accepting his death (the 'sleep' after apple-picking). However, towards the end of the poem, readers were given a glimpse of hope from the Voice, whose awakening from the sleep -- that is, desire to die -- had been interrupted, and his reflections on his disillusionment were once again converted to hope and possibly, continuing perseverance to struggle in life.

In contrast to Frost's dominant theme of disillusionment in life, Bishop's "The Fish" is a poem that centers on one's perseverance to pursue a meaningful life despite its hardships and suffering. Life was depicted in general, and the symbol of the fish was utilized in order to provide more meaningful and effective demonstration of life struggle.

Life struggle mirrored through the fish symbol gave power to Bishop's imagery of life as both dangerous and wonderful, in the same manner that the sea becomes an essential yet dangerous environment for a fish. The first lines of the poem are vital to the establishment of the message of the poem because we, as readers, are able to interpret her descriptions and opinions about the fish as the narrator's subjective judgment and a reflection and comparison of her own personal experience and struggles in life.

The lines, "He didn't fight / He hadn't fought at all / He hung a grunting weight..." uses the element of parallelism, wherein the poet emphasizes the importance of the fish's lack of attempt to struggle, which is in contrast to the natural reaction to animals when subjected to such a situation. Thus, by describing the fact that the fish hadn't struggled after being caught, the interpretation was that the fish's actions were one of resignation and acceptance of his fate (that is, to die in the hands of the narrator).

Simile is used in the succeeding lines: ".. his brown skin hung in strips / like ancient wallpaper / and its pattern of darker brown / was like wallpaper.. stained and lost through age...." The fish's seemingly.