The title of the poem provides the time in which it is set. The title is actually quite helpful because, without it, you might think that the poem is set during the apple-picking. As the speaker is about the fall asleep, he imagines that he is back in the orchard, but his reflection is confused and disoriented. Apart from this practical help, the title is very modest. It refers to a commonplace autumn job, at least for people who own farms in New England, without hinting at all the symbolic resonances that the poem itself will present.