Comparing Blackberry-Picking And Digging

In Seamus Heaney’s poetry, there is a recurring theme of his talking of the past, and more predominantly about significant moments in time, where he came to realisations that brought him to adulthood. In “Death of a Naturalist” Heaney describes a moment in his childhood where he learnt that nature was not as beautiful as seem to be when he was just a naive child. Heaney does this on a deeper level in “Midterm Break” describes his experience of his younger brothers funeral and the mixed, confusing feelings he encountered, consequently learning that he no longer was a child, and had no choice but to be exposed to reality. Robert Frost in one sense also describes particular moments in time, where his narrator comes to realisations. However,

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

Two of the poems written by Seamus Heaney, “Digging” and “Blackberry Picking”, contain recurring themes while both discussing entirely different scenes. The first poem, “Digging”, talks about Heaney’s memories of hearing his father digging in the potato garden outside the house. The second poem, “Blackberry-Picking”, carries a similar solemn tone, while describing another memory of Heaney’s of his experience with picking blackberries. These poems by Heaney share similar themes of reflection of his past experiences in which he dissects important life lessons from everyday events such as the passage of time and the uncertainty of life.

Like a shovel to dirt as a pen to paper. In “Digging,” Seamus Heaney uses specific elements such as diction, and imagery to convey his meaning that children don’t always want to be like their past generations of men.

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.

Most people want to live a happy life. As people grow up not everyone gets to live this happy life they dreamed of. Seamus Heaney writes about youthful times of joy and despair in his poem Blackberry-Picking. The author's use of intense diction, deep symbolism, and vivid imagery expresses the speaker's previous view of optimism and avarice as a youth. Using word choice the author shows how life as a youth varies then that of an adult.

Seamus Heaney and Thomas Hardy both depict images of rural life as difficult and uncomfortable. In their poems ‘At a Potato Digging’ and ‘A Sheep Fair’ they describe different aspects of rural life; these were elements of life that would have been familiar to the poets and ones that they would have experienced. In their poetry Heaney and Hardy

The poems “First Snow” by Mary Oliver and “After Apple-Picking” by Robert Frost use wildly different poetic forms to achieve much the same practical goal: to describe and represent the first snow of winter. In comparing these two works one is reminded of the universality of experience that makes poetry possible. In contrasting the two one is reminded of the unique creativity and range of expression that makes poetry precious. A synthesis of the two is a solid statement on the power of good poets.

In the poem “Blackberry-Picking,” the author discusses the harshness of life by describing his experience picking blackberries. While the poem is rather dark, he maintains the message that childish hopes still exist despite the continual blockade of reality. In the first stanza, Heaney describes the berry picking as a rather unimportant task. The blackberries represent the hope and excitement that summer is: “summer’s blood was in it” (6).

Once the reader can passes up the surface meaning of the poem Blackberry-Picking, by Seamus Heaney, past the emotional switch from sheer joy to utter disappointment, past the childhood memories, the underlying meaning can be quite disturbing. Hidden deep within the happy-go-lucky rifts of childhood is a disturbing tale of greed and murder. Seamus Heaney, through clever diction, ghastly imagery, misguided metaphors and abruptly changing forms, ingeniously tells the tale that is understood and rarely spoken aloud.

conversation. It isn't like a poem at all. It says "By god the old man

In the poem Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney, the narrator depicts his greed for summer’s blackberries and how that greed leads to disappointment. Heaney adds meaning to his poem by metaphorically comparing blackberries to pleasurable things in our lives and that they should be savored in the moment rather than stored. The author’s choice of blackberries in the summer has a subtle significance. Because blackberries only ripen in the summer and because they spoil easily, he is able to convey how precious these blackberries are and why the narrator lusts for them. The narrator also addresses the audience during the picking of the first blackberry: “you ate that first one and its flesh was sweet.”

as if this act of touching for a second time sparks off a series 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.

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.