After Apple-picking - A Personal Response

The way the past is presented in this poem is very interesting.

A main point I think is that Frost is referring to the work of harvesting he has just completed as a farmer. This is referred to in the lines

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.

A second interesting point is Frost's state of mind. He has been so obsessed by the work of the harvest during the day that although he has stopped the physical work he cannot stop thinking about the work. In fact he recollects the memory of work so strongly it is as if he is reliving it again in the present. Consider such lines as

And I could tell    What form my dreaming was about to take.    Magnified apples appear and disappear,    Stem end and blossom end,    And every fleck of russet showing clear. My instep arch not only keeps the ache,    It keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.    I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.    And I keep hearing from the cellar bin    The rumbling sound Of load on load of apples coming in. These lines are really helpful and there are lots to write about them. Firstly the past comes to him as a dream. It completely dominates his sleep.We notice he dream about the apples in lots of detail. he even imagines  his body has kept the shape of the ladder he has used to pick the apples. And in the last few lines of this quotation he refers specifically to sensory imagery. He can feel and hear the past. Each one of the sentences above can act as a topic sentence for at least four paragraphs.
He returns to the work of the day in the following lines.Frost wants to communicate the enormity of the work he has been doing. We get a strong impression of the vastness of the orchard, his love and care of each apple and the work.
There were ten thousand thousand fruit to touch, Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.    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.
I hope you find these quotations and comments helpful for your essay.