Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney

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Late August, given heavy rain and sun

for a full week, the blackberries would ripen. Summer time; poem about blackberries

At first, just one, a glossy purple clot (only one first)clot has connotations to blood clot, stopping blood flow

among others, red, green, hard as a knot. rhyming sequence AABB...

You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet taste of first blackberry; beginning is always very sweet. Flesh again connotes to blood

like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it simile; very thick like blood, uses the word blood again.

leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for negative connotations; 'stain', leaves a mark. 'tongue' and 'lust' both have connotations to love, enjambment, lust for...

picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger lust for picking, negative, but he cannot stop anymore, they are starting to ripen. Ends with the word hunger, strong craving for the blackberries.

Sent us out with milk-cans, pea-tins, jam-pots enjambent for personification of hunger, shows the power it has over him and his siblings; they use any type of basket- shows their urgency and the fact that they want to fill a very large amount of blackberries (to save up for later).

where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots. Looking everywhere; its possibly early morning.

Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills

we trekked and picked until the cans were full, worked very hard;didn't stop until all cans were full, 'trekked' indicates that they are in a rural, possibly high altitude area.

until the tinkling bottom had been covered sound of blackberries hitting the bottom of the cans ('tinkling'); covered completely

with green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned arrangement of the blackberries is shown

like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered comparing blackberries at the top with eyeballs,

with thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's. Linked to a fairy tale in which Bluebeard kills his wives and then hides them.

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre. 'hoard' gives value to the berries; we learn that the berries are fresh when they are first stored

But when the bath was filled we found a fur, As soon as the 'bath' is filled, the berries get moldy; 'fur' has connotations to animals- further sowing the importance of the berries to the speaker

A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache. strong imagery--'rat-grey fungus'; metaphor of rat eating the berries, very strong imagery- shows Heaney's disgust at the mold

The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush immediateyl start to rot, they cannot stop the rotting.

the fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour. change in taste after all the hard work; repetition of the word flesh.

I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair no matter how hard he tries, the blackberries will rot anyway; he can't do anything to keep the blackberries sweet for a long time.

that all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot. doesn't understand why this happens every time

Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not. he knows that they will rot, but he goes through the same process every year because he desperately wants the blackberries to stay.

underlined=analysis

bold or italics=words or phrases from the poem that are analysed

Overall Analysis

Lots of imagery is used throughout, allows readers to understand the setting and the speaker better.

Heaney uses all 5 senses; thoroughly shows what he feels and sees throughout the poem

Rhyming scheme is consistent; AABBCC

Rhythm/Structure

Written in iambic pentameter, though this is changed some times for emphasis on certain words or certain lines.

At times, Heaney uses half rhymes such as between the words 'byre and 'fur'.

Heaney uses lots of consonance e.g. in line 9 where he tries to emphasise certain sounds to increase the richness in our mouths.

Alliteration is also very common in the poem, Heaaney uses lots of hard sounds which indicates the harshness of the lesson he learns from the poem--- no matter how hard he tries, the rotting of the blackberries is inevitable.

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Overview

Poem is about picking up blackberries.

It is late summer- the month of August

Blackberries start to ripen at the beginning

Lots of them are still not ripe

After eating the very first blackberry that is ripe, you will want more

They get some holding equipment and set off to pick blackberries

They look for blackberries everywhere

They fill their buckets with the least ripe berries first, then the ripest blackberries

After storing the blackberries, they start to rot

Even though the narrator badly wants the blackberries to stay ripe, they always eventually rot.

Context

Happened long time ago; memories of the speaker

Yet very clear memories; smells, taste, colors are all vividly depicted

Set in a rural, countryside area

Nostalgic memories for the speaker

From the set of poems called 'Death of a Naturalist'

Seamus Heaney was born in a farmhouse family

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