Frost Versus Shakespeare

In Robert Frost’s “After Apple Picking” and Prospero’s epilogue in William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest,” the reader glimpses into the minds of two creators at their most vulnerable. Frost’s protagonist appears to be doing little more than picking apples and Prospero appears to be begging for forgiveness on account of some undisclosed offense. In reality, these two characters speak to the power of creation, but only through the recognition of such creation in the minds of others. Accordingly, the apple picker and Prospero speak to that which makes the creative act relevant: the eye of the beholder and the camaraderie therein entailed.

Frost’s poem begins with a bird’s eye view of the apple picker engaged in his craft. “My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree/Toward heaven still,/ And there's a barrel that I didn't fill (Frost, R. “After Apple Picking 1-3). It is as thought Frost’s apple picker is brought closer to the Heavens by virtue of his ability to fill the barrels of the mundane. Nevertheless, the apple picker cannot access the Heavens because there appear too many barrels left for him to fill. He is “done with apple-picking now” (6).

Similarly, we find that Prospero appears as resolute as ever in his resignation. “Now my charms are all overthrown,” he says, “I must be here confined by you” (V. Epilogue. 1-5). As such, both characters are somehow enslaved by those who rely upon them to fill their apple barrels, so to say. “As you from crimes would pardoned be,/ Let your indulgence set me free,” says Prospero (V. Epilogue 19-20). For Prospero, only the attention of an audience can provide him with a sense of achievement or fulfillment. Paradoxically, it is only through Prospero’s distancing from the audience that he feels inclusion in the human social order.

To an extent, these two characters have become obsessed with their respective craft; they crave the spotlight not in and of itself, but on account of the attention it garners them from their viewers. Prospero can only be freed by the audience’s applause, just as the apple picker can only be released if none of his apples are so bruised as to be tossed into the cider pile of less than desirable apples. And yet, both characters seem to recognize this reality, hoping against hope to be set free. In order to be so, both characters must somehow be relieved of the solitary duty that has occupied much of their lives; they are not included in the mainstream social order and while plying their craft is rewarding, it is only so in light of the audience’s adoration, or at least its recognition. Nevertheless, the effort involved in this process of acquiring attention, only to lose it eventually for the purpose of re-acquiring it, is an exhausting way in which to live a life, as both characters make clear.

For Prospero and the apple-picker, they are only at home in the creative tradition, seemingly unable to access any form of human inclusion unless they experience this sensation through identification of some audience or viewership. It is only through this distancing that these characters effectuate a kind of closeness to humanity. Indeed, both appear to feel closer to the Heavens than to the Earth, as they can only exist in their most satisfied state while engaged in the act of creation, for which they believe themselves to exist. In order to remain in this state of fulfillment, they must gain the applause and attention of those who wish to consume the fruits of their labor. And yet, both characters yearn to be free of their respective abilities to create. It is in this paradoxical state of affairs that drives both portrayals, and both works in which these portrayals are made.