what is the theme for Robert Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking"?

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 rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking 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 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.
For I have had too much
Of apple-picking: I am overtired
Of the great harvest I myself desired.
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.
One can see what will trouble
This sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it’s like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.

It is about the author's imminent death and about all the things that he would have liked to achieve but never did.

The theme for Robert Frost's poem "After Apple-Picking" is the reflections and musings of a tired apple-picker at the end of the day. The speaker of the poem is exhausted from the physical labor of picking apples and is now experiencing a sense of weariness and drowsiness. Through the imagery of apples, dreams, and sleep, Frost explores themes of exhaustion, mortality, and the nature of dreams.

To determine the theme of a poem, it is important to analyze the different elements and symbols present in the poem. In "After Apple-Picking," the narrator's fatigue and desire for rest are evident throughout the poem. The use of imagery, such as the ladder, apples, and the speaker's dreams, points to the idea of physical labor and its consequences.

Additionally, the poem contains a sense of reflection and contemplation on the nature of life and death. The speaker muses on the significance of the apples they picked and the realization that, in the end, they all end up in the cider-apple heap, suggesting a sense of futility in their efforts. This reflection on mortality adds depth to the theme of exhaustion and provides a contemplative tone to the poem.

Overall, the theme of "After Apple-Picking" revolves around the exhaustion of physical labor, the contemplation of mortality, and the ambiguous nature of dreams.