What does the following lines of After Apple-picking?

[sky753]

Hi everyone ,

Recently I have been reading some poems .Some parts of the poems are difficult for me to understand.Could you help me?

①…I skimmed this morning from the drinking tough.

And held against the world of hoary of glass

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.…

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.

What does this paragraph mean?What does it(underlined) here refer to?

The above lines are from after apple—picking by Robert Lee Frost.

②The other questions here I want to trouble you are in The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald what kind of person Gatsby is and for what purposes does Gatsby protect Daisy?

Thank you all.

[Casiopea]

Originally Posted by weiqun ding

①…I skimmed this morning from the drinking tough.
And held against the world of hoary of glass
It melted ,and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
Upon my way to sleep before it fell,

"it" refers to 'hoary of glass', the ice skimmed off the top of the drinking trough.

As for question 2., what are your thoughts?