Robert Frost is well known for his many symbolic poems. "After Apple-Picking" and "Birches" are two very symbolic poems of quest. Frost uses symbols and his writing style to emphasize his idea of the complexities of life and the necessity of finding ways to manage life's ambiguities. The quest for knowledge is one of the most important expeditions in life. Death is also a quest interpreted by Robert Frost. These two quests are used by frost to articulate ways in which all people can rise above problems in life.
             The quest for knowledge and death are both accentuated in the poem "After Apple-Picking." Robert Frost uses many symbols to represent a deeper meaning of his poems. The dictionary definition of regret is, sorrow caused by something beyond one's power to remedy. This seems to be the state of our speaker, for he states reflectively, "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". We have established that the apple represents both life and death, and in this instance may we go even further and say that these particular apples represent life experiences, these experiences were missed. Or perhaps knowledge that was not gained, but was desired. The barrels are empty, and seeing this, regret is felt. Nevertheless, "but I am done with apple-picking now", tells us that our speaker feels he can no longer remedy the empty barrels. He is now at a reflecting point for he tells!
             us that he dreams "magnified apples appear and disappear, stem end and blossom end, and every fleck of russet showing clear". Through this passage we see that he is reflecting back on his life. Some experiences are clearer than others. Perhaps some are more significant now than they were at the time. By "stem end and blossom end", we see that our speaker feels he has examined the experiences thoroughly and can now see the "russet" parts of the ...