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Gerber, “The first comes with an obtrusive gesture in the poem’s second line; it’s seemingly gratuitous reference to the ladder’s pointing “toward heaven still”. Without straining the issue, the word heaven elicits subconscious responses involving death and immortality.” (Charters 1160). Frost also looks back on his life wondering if he made the right choices. “…Beside it, and there might be two or three/ apples I didn’t pick upon some bough…” (Charters 1011) is a representation of that thought. In addition, this metaphor illustrates that throughout his life he wasn’t able to do everything as planned. Moreover, another example of orientational metaphor from “After Apple Picking” is going back down to earth. “… I got from looking through a pane of glass/ And held against the world of hoary grass/ It melted, and I let it fall and break…” (Charters 1011 -1012) is a part of the poem where Frost gives an entirely different meaning to a concept. In these lines, he gives a personal perspective of how he is willing to accept the direction of his life. When he refers to letting the window of glass”fall and break”, he is really talking about ice that has melted. In “Toward Robert Frost”, Oster explains “Ice carries further the idea of “winter sleep” and
