Blackberry Picking

Blackberry Picking

Blackberry picking is about greed, growing up, how we struggle in life

and how pleasure can be taken away from us very quickly. Heaney

writes retrospectively, about the times he as a child would go

blackberry-picking every year, as a metaphor for these experiences.

The first stanza of the poem is mostly quite positive and

enthusiastic. The first part of the stanza describes the the ripening

of the berries, “given heavy rain and sun for a full week, the

blackberries would ripen”. He also gives us an image of the berries.

Heaney uses the metaphor “a glossy purple clot” for the ripe berries,

and the similie “hard as a knot” for the unripe berries. When you say

“hard as a knot”, the sound is quite short, indicating that the

berries are not yet ripe. It then continues to write about the frenzy

of picking them - “lust for picking”.

Heaney presents the tasting of the berries as a sensual process, and

also uses words like “flesh”, and “thickened wine” to make the berries

sound so desirable. Also“lust”, to describe the childrens

unrestrained desire and appetite for them.

Heaney uses a lot of figurative language in this poem.

Personification and a series of metaphors and similies are used:

“flesh was sweet like thickened wine”, the berry is personified and

there is use of a similie, the metaphor “summer’s blood”, referring to

the hard work and nourishment that nature has put into it, and then

suddenly it is taken away by the children.

It is the peoples “hunger” and “lust”for the berries that sends them

out to fill up their “milk-cans, pea-tins, jam-pots” until they are

fully filled up with blackberries – “until the tinkling bottom has

been covered”. Onomatopoeia is used - “tinkling...

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...ow long and painful the process of

picking the blackberries are, how they got their hands full of thorn

pricks. Then after a short while, the berries start to rot, and the

“sweet flesh” of the berries would turn sour.

Heaney writes this poem to reveal that life is about disappointment,

and that good things won’t last, while relating it back to a childhood

event of his past. It is also about growing up, and ageing, as we get

the contrast of the adults and childrens view in the last stanza.

I found this poem very enjoyable and interesting to study, because

when I was reading the poem, it almost felt like I could taste the

blackberries. I like his use of figurative language, especially the

way he described the berries. Another reason why I liked this poem is

because I like the way Heaney uses past events of his life to express

certain ideas about life.