Analysis of Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney

Introduction

This is a pleasant literary work that provides colorful detail and clever diction. The author is attempting to convey a deeper meaning by utilizing the simple scenario of picking blackberries. Even though the subject of the poem knew that the blackberries would rot, he still picked them and got immersed in the excitement. This suggests that in life, as mortals, we all get excited about certain things and believe that we are on cloud nine. It's a lesson that's never learned and is often repeated. After reading this poem a few times, I believe it's a very well-crafted poem with high-quality language. The taste of the first berry that was ingested is compared to "thickened wine." Heaney uses the metaphor "summer's blood" to convey the madness of the sweet juice that led to an eager desire to eat more, a 'lust for picking.' Towards the middle of the first stanza, we see the picker's genuine love for blackberries, as they pull out any available container to collect their fruit.

Analysis of Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney

The next line tells us how far the children traveled to pick the fruit, "round fodder fields, cornfields and potato drills." Heaney uses a rhetorical device on the thirteenth line of the first stanza, "tinkling bottoms," implying the sound of falling berries within the metal containers. The following line's tone changes dramatically and becomes very violent, "like a plate of eyes," which sounds very gloomy and grotesque. However, it tells us that the children are not very daunted by getting hurt; the only thing they care about is their hunger for the berries. "Our hands were peppered with thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's." The last few words in this sentence are very mystical. I do not understand why Heaney has mentioned the fictional character Bluebeard; he might be attempting to say that the children’s hands are coated in blood, due to killing the blackberries (in other words, the crime they have committed by wasting the blackberries to satisfy their lust and excitement) just like Bluebeard's were after murdering his wives in the fairy tale story. Here Heaney uses figurative language to give a connotation to blood and violence.

The maturity of the blackberries is contrasted with what they later become, describing the fungus as a “fur” is a good image because it creates a picture in the reader's mind of what precisely the moldy blackberries look like, “rat-grey fungus.” The description also mentions the color of the fungus, to give more depth. The following line Heaney is speaking like a child. “It wasn’t fair.” Here Heaney shows us how young children might have been to be so emotional about the blackberries. The local language used by Heaney makes the reader feel sorry for the poor kids. Once again Heaney offers another small reference “all the canfuls smelt of rot.” Again Heaney is contrasting “lovely” with “rot.” In the last line, Heaney mentions that he always hoped the blackberries would last, but they never did. Like I mentioned before, we never learn any lessons from our experiences and we go out and make the same mistake over and over again.

“Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they’d not.” Here it tells us how possessive and obsessed the pickers are about blackberries, that each year they forget that the blackberries would rot; and they end up making the same mistake again and again. The poem is jam-packed with verbs and adjectives to give the real taste and feel of the blackberries. It's intentionally almost too rich so that the poem fills the reader’s mouth as the blackberries do. The poem is set out in iambic verse couplets, filled with syllabic nouns “clot,” “cans,” “pots,” “blobs,” “pricks,” “byre,” “fur,” “cache,” “bush,” “flesh,” and “rot.” Heaney does not use a lot of rhyme; it's only used twice in the whole poem, “clot”-“knot,” “rot”-“not.” Heaney uses many alliterations in the poem, “first”-“flesh,” “peppered”-“pricks”-“palms,” “berries”-“byre,” “fur”-“fungus,” “fruit fermented”-“flesh,” and last of all “sweet”-“sour,” to make the poem sound interesting, and also to make it sound more appealing when read aloud. Heaney also uses plenty of words that sound similar; “milk cans,” “pea tins,” “jam pots,” “hayfields,” “cornfields,” “trekked,” “picked,” again this is done so that when reading the poem, slowly and loudly, we as readers can feel the vibration of our tongues. Heaney uses personification, as he gives the fungus human quality, that is eroding the delicious blackberries. Seamus Heaney uses different language styles in this poem like, the poem offers a viewpoint by an innocent and excited child and also it uses very strong imagery to evoke the senses.

Conclusion

After analyzing this literary composition, it has certainly gathered my thoughts, and I’ve come to the conclusion that this poem is truly about hope and disappointment (knowing that things never turn out to be how we want them to be) and that we must accept that nothing is eternal in this world, changes are due to happen in time, and blackberries become a symbol for these experiences. Heaney's work reminds us of the transient nature of joy and the inevitable decay that follows, encapsulating a universal truth about the human condition.

References

• Heaney, S. (1966). Blackberry-Picking. In Death of a Naturalist. Faber & Faber.