Consider the poems.
"The Corn Harvest"
by William Carlos Williams
Summer !
the painting is organized
about a young
reaper enjoying his
noonday rest
completely
relaxed
from his morning labors
sprawled
in fact sleeping
unbuttoned
on his back
the women
have brought him his
lunch
perhaps
a spot of wine
they gather gossiping
under a tree
whose shade
carelessly
he does not share the
resting center of their workaday world.
An excerpt from "After Apple Picking"
by Robert Frost
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 shake the shimmer from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the water-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 reappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
And every fleck of russet showing clear.
How is Frost’s presentation of the subject different than Williams’s?
Williams is complimentary toward the workers, but Frost is critical.
Williams’s characters are eager to return to work, but Frost’s are not.
Williams explains the challenges of the harvest, but Frost only mentions the fruit.
Williams speaks as an observer, but Frost speaks as a participant in the harvest.
