Essay on Analysis of Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney

From the beginning of the poem, the speaker tells of his naïve, consuming world of blackberries. Because the

Dark words and phrases are initially sprinkled throughout the poem giving it a sense of despondence. For example, Oliver uses the phrase, “the dark burred/ faintly belching/ bogs” which describes the swamp as dark and grim (6-8). The imagery of the swamp is very dark because it symbolizes the hardships that people may have during their lifetimes. Crossing the swamp is a very difficult task, and Oliver compares it to the challenges of life. Therefore, she states “My bones/ knock together at the pale/ joints” (13-15). This once again demonstrates the difficulty of crossing the swamp as Oliver faces many physical challenges including the pain of her old bones. The author transitions from these dark and negative images to illustrations of hope and growth in the next few lines. For example, she describes “a poor/ dry stick given/ one more chance by the whims/ of swamp water” to take root and grow (28-30). This demonstrates how people may face tremendously difficult obstacles to overcome in their lifetimes similar to a dry stick having difficulty taking root. However, these challenges allow people to attain success. Without struggle, there would be no achievement in life. It is the hardships in life that truly allow people to appreciate success once it is achieved. Oliver concludes the fabulous piece with more uplifting and positive imagery of a

Bruce Dawe uses symbols to create moods showing sadness and the loss of hope. Dawe’s line ‘and when the loaded ute bumps down the drive past the blackberry canes with their last shriveled fruit’, the blackberries were used as an indicator of time, on their arrival the berries were the 'first of the season' but by the time when they drove past the blackberry cane was they're saw only 'their last shrivelled fruit'. This tells us that they perhaps only stayed for about two or three months. ‘The brown kelpie pup will start dashing about, tripping everyone up’ The dog run around barking, shows the scene of a chaotic house, it also conveys a sense of bad luck to the family. A “kelpie” is an Australian sheepdog, in Scottish it refers to an evil water spirit that takes the form of a horse and drowns travellers. This cross-meaning gives the poem a sense of danger, implying that the family is not only traveling with a puppy for the children but is also an omen of bad luck. The unexpectedness of the move is conveyed by the fact that the tomatoes are still green on the vine. They never live in the one place long enough for the tomatoes to ripen. This could be the same for other aspects of their lives, making new friends could be an example. They started to become friendly with the

fair”, you can tell this is the voice of a child. There is also a

The poem describes the weather and its effect on cotton flower by pointing out the dying branches and vanishing cotton. The image of insufficiency, struggle and death parallel the oppression of African American race. The beginning of the poem illustrates the struggle and suffering of the cotton flower; which represent the misery of African Americans and also gives an idea that there is no hope for them. But at the end the speaker says “brown eyes that loves without a trace of fear/ Beauty so sudden for that time of year” (lines 13-14). This shows the rise of the African American race, and their fight against racism. The author used mood, tone and

This poem begins with the speaker leaving his group of friends (who have been discussing sexual liaisons) for a drunken walk in St. James’s Park, to “cool my head, and fire my heart” (8), whereupon he encounters his lover Corinna being led away by three “knights.” She looks at him disdainfully. His anger towards

The first paragraph plays an imperative role in the excerpt, for it introduces the reader to the emotional despondency of the boy. William Gass successfully strikes the reader from the beginning, for his two word opening, “lime slush” (line 1), prompts the reader to not only envisage a lime slush, but also taste its sugary sweetness. However, the sweetness this imagery provides is short lasting, for they are soon bombarded with countless caesuras, as he describes how “slush is supposed to be water. That’s what slush is. It certainly isn’t sherbet! It wasn’t a nice green. And there didn’t seem to be that much of it.” (lines 2-3). The disappointment that entrenches the boy in these short but concrete statements, successfully introduces the reader to his emotional bitterness, for not even the lime slush’s sweetness can sweeten it. The colour imagery does not stop there, for he describes how “strawberry always

Written in 1980, Galway Kinnell's Blackberry Eating is a poem which creates a strong metaphoric relationship between the tangible objects of blackberries, and the intangible objects of words. The speaker of the poem feels a strong attraction to the sensory characteristics (the touch, taste, and look) of blackberries. The attraction he feels at the beginning of the poem exclusively for blackberries is paralleled in the end by his appetite and attraction to words. The rush the speaker gets out of blackberry eating is paralleled to the enjoyment he finds in thinking about certain words; words which call up the same sensory images the blackberries embody.

In this poem, we see the tone light and free, also much imagery. We see this immediately with the first line saying, the “afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight” (1). We immediately get a sense of a beautiful day, maybe even fall with the trees descriptions in the following line, “trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves” (2). Lowell shows such beautiful imagery throughout her poem especially in her first two stanzas, that when we read that they are in the middle of war in the third stanza, that it is slightly shocking. That there are “two little boys, lying flat on their faces” (7) and that they are, “carefully gathering red berries” (8). Here Lowell shows that it is still a beautiful day but the darker reality is that they are currently in a war. Then we start to see the poem more in a melancholy light. That these two little boys are picking berries to save for later, instead of enjoying it right now. However one day the boys wish that “there will be no more war” (10), and that then, they could in fact enjoy their berries, their afternoon and “turn it in my fingers”. In this poem, we clearly see the different tones throughout. Lowell shows us the light tone, then a more melancholy tone and then finally a hopeful tone.

This is particularly evident within drifters were a families sense of identity is continuously hampered by their nomadic lifestyle with they must embrace as itinerant workers. Throughout the poem, the blackberry bush is constantly referred to as a symbol of hope that the family would settle into one location “when they came here, she held out her hand bright with berries”. The use of such a symbol brings to light the similarity between the drifter’s erratic life journey and the blackberry bush. As the family move into a town they begin to embrace there environment, only to end the experience as quickly as it began similarly to the blackberry bushes cycle of growth and ‘bright berries’ only to wither and die. This ultimately displays the emotional obstacles within a physical journey that reinforces our inner strength. Furthermore, the negative and positive aspects of the journey of life experienced by the characters are highlighted through the juxtaposing of the girls reaction to the decision to move, “the oldest girl was close to tear/ the youngest girl was beaming”. The positive element of the a family being an individual’s sense of support and identity is vaguely portrayed, however the overwhelming negative sense that such a family provides and undesirable predetermined script of one’s life is emphasised as in this instance it has impeded on the girls growth. This ultimately increases the responder’s awareness of the underlying emotional journey within every physical journey, increasing the inner strength of those that choose to take such

Fairy Tales are known for their rich symbolism. The story, “Blue Beard” by Charles Perrault is a much darker fairy tale that readers are not used to. The story is about a mass murderer. Blue Beard is a wealthy man. His wives keep disappearing. One day, his current wife enters a room off-limits to her as she is so overtaken with curiosity. In the room, she uncovers the dead bodies of his past wives whom Blue Beard killed for entering the room. Though she does not say anything, Blue Beard learns of her discovery. He is intent on killing his wife, but her brothers appear and kill Blue Beard, leaving his wife the sole heir to Blue Beard's massive fortune. The story represents a much darker fairytale where Perrault connected Blue Beard’s beard to

He could have chosen any other object to write about, but he chose blackberries because it has a deep meaning that makes the reader truly think about what he or she is reading. After the reader is able to understand his true intentions behind the poem, they are able to genuinely reflect. When he says, “Although I could smell old lime-covered history, at ten I’d still hold out my hands & berries fell into them. Eating from one and filling a half gallon with the other, I ate the mythology & dreamt of pies & cobbler, almost.”, he is saying that as a child he had a rough time. Again the deeper meaning of blackberries is extremely prevalent because the darkness that is described by blackberries is shown when he imagines eating pie and cobbler because he was not permitted to consume delectable goods.In the middle of the poem, the author writes, “The mud frogs in rich blackness, hid from daylight.” to describe the life he lived. He being the black mud frog, hides during the day. During slave times he could not show his real self being because he would be prosecuted by the owners for not doing his job. Just like the frog, he makes his true appearance at night time. Slaves were given strict rules to follow and if they were not abided by they had a chance of being

In the most literal sense, the speaker of Heaney’s poem, is a young boy engaging in his annual summer activity of picking blackberries. At first the speaker appears to be anticipatory of the “late August… sun… [when] the blackberries would ripen” (Heeney 2). However, upon further examination, as the poem steadily progresses it quickly becomes evident that “there's [a] rub” (Shakespeare, 3.1.65). This “rub” is most prominently exposed through Heaney’s contrasting images of divinity, with the first stanza alluding to Christ, communion, and the crucifixion, to the Biblically defined sins of gluttony, lust, and greed peppered throughout the first stanza and dominating the second. The first instance of an allusion is to that of a higher power when the speaker observes that, “...given heavy rain and sun/For a full week the blackberries would ripen.” (Heaney 1-2). This absence of a direct means to an end, such as a farmer watering the blackberries, alludes to the presence, and in turn, influence of a higher power, in that the blackberries do not ripen themselves, only through natural means of “...heavy rain and sun..." (1-2). This reference to natural means of germination insinuates the conception of Jesus through Mary without the aid of a human father, or in the case of

In the poem “After Apple-Picking”, Robert Frost has cleverly disguised many symbols and allusions to enhance the meaning of the poem. One must understand the parallel to understand the central theme of the poem. The apple mentioned in the poem could be connected to the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. It essentially is the beginning of everything earthly and heavenly, therefore repelling death. To understand the complete meaning of Frost’s poem one needs to be aware that for something to be dead, it must have once had life. Life and death are common themes in poetry, but this poem focuses on what is in between, life’s missed experiences and the regret that the speaker is left with.

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