Analysis Of The Poem Blackberry-Picking
Do you remember when you were a child and staying up late delighted you? How you were always impatient to grow up and everything was spontaneous and unplanned? Before we knew it, the years whizzed by in a blur and we noticed our lives had become dull and grey. Now, we follow routine – we go to work, go home and work more until our eyes are dry and heavy, always hoping that tomorrow holds something new. We follow this routine for a majority of our lives until we are weak, decrepit and unable experience the adventures we had once planned to. Many poets recognised this cycle in their own lives, expressing their regret and fear through beautiful words strung together in a poem. Broadcasting an episode on Get Poetic about life and disappointment
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The first stanza sets the scene by describing the poet’s naïve hope and optimism. Heaney emphasises the boy’s youth and eagerness by glorifying the full, juicy berries through the use of imagery: “a glossy purple clot”. The audience effectively identifies with the boy, seeing the berries like an eager child would. The use of the simile, “Like thickened wine”, and the metaphor “summer’s blood” reiterates the vivid, childlike sensation of the boy’s lust for the berries by describing the warmth and likening the juiciness to blood. Readers understand his gluttony and consequently sympathise with him when the berries rot, reminding them of their own disheartening experiences. He personifies the briars scratching at the boy’s ankle to further communicate his experience and remind readers of the summer farm setting. Heaney slowly reveals that the boy becomes overcome with lust for the berries through the simile, “Our hands were peppered / With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's”. Audiences empathise with the young child who, overexcited and greedy, went through the extremity of pain to obtain more berries. This makes the realisation more crushing later. He likens their berry-stained palms to Bluebeard’s blood-stained hands, beginning the darker undertone of the
The first stanza sets the scene by describing the poet’s naïve hope and optimism. Heaney emphasises the boy’s youth and eagerness by glorifying the full, juicy berries through the use of imagery: “a glossy purple clot”. The audience effectively identifies with the boy, seeing the berries like an eager child would. The use of the simile, “Like thickened wine”, and the metaphor “summer’s blood” reiterates the vivid, childlike sensation of the boy’s lust for the berries by describing the warmth and likening the juiciness to blood. Readers understand his gluttony and consequently sympathise with him when the berries rot, reminding them of their own disheartening experiences. He personifies the briars scratching at the boy’s ankle to further communicate his experience and remind readers of the summer farm setting. Heaney slowly reveals that the boy becomes overcome with lust for the berries through the simile, “Our hands were peppered / With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's”. Audiences empathise with the young child who, overexcited and greedy, went through the extremity of pain to obtain more berries. This makes the realisation more crushing later. He likens their berry-stained palms to Bluebeard’s blood-stained hands, beginning the darker undertone of the