Themes of Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney

Blackberry picking by Seamus Heaney is about time, gluttony, limitations of life, and to some extent, the struggles of life. Heaney writes retrospectively about his life, with hindsight, about how he as a child, would go blackberry picking during a particular time of year.

Throughout the poem and particularly in the first stanza, Heaney uses a wide range of literary devices such as intense imagery or sensory imagery, exceptionally meaningful metaphors and alliteration.

Alliteration is used quite often in the poem. Throughout the whole poem, there is a frequent repetition of “b” words, such as “big dark blobs burned”. In the readers mind, this creates a more powerful image of the berries, and gives a strong impression of their shape and colour.

There is quite a bit of imagery used in the first stanza, language that appeals to a sense or any combination of the sense. “Its flesh sweet like a thickened wine”, a glossy purple clot”. Apparently, thickened wine is tasty, so it appeals to the taste and so does the sweetness of the thickened wine. He also describes the blackberries as “Leave stains upon the tongue”.

Throughout the whole poem, there is a constant repetition of the word blood or a metaphor or simile referring to blood. There is also reference to flesh on several occasions to make the berries sound desirable. Blood indicates the juice of the berries and flesh indicates what is within.

An example of a metaphor is when Heaney describes the berries as a “glossy purple clot”. This smart use of an imagery and a metaphor at the same time gives an image of a ripe berry. There is also a smart use of a simile, “hard as a knot”, for the unripe berries. When Heaney says “hard as a knot”, it sounds rather short, sugge...

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...mongst children, he had a hope in himself that this time it would be different, that this time the berries would not rot, an optimism of a naïve and inexperienced child.

The final part of the poem, yet perhaps the most appealing which sums up what happens each year, is how he would always have faith inside himself the next year that they would not rot. There is a rhyme of the last word of the second last stanza,”rot”, and “not”. This is the only part of the poem that rhymes, and it is rather smart to end the poem on a rhyming note.

In conclusion, Black-berry picking by Seamus Heaney is a fine piece of poetry set alive by metaphors, similes, alliteration, imagery and other literary devices. Heaney’s poem seems to be violent and brutal, and has a lesson to be learnt behind the poem, a message deep but not linked with childhood, linked to the struggles of life.