Blackberry Picking Seamus Heaney

Themes
1. Growing Up
  1. The dissapointment which heaney portrays in this poem can be linked to growth from a child to an adult which also often involves dissapointment.
2. Disappointment
  1. 'Blackberry Picking' explores the dissatisfaction often involvedin ganing the object of desire
  2. Heaney is unveiling greed
3. Nature
  1. Nature is the most obvious theme in the poem. Like many in many of Heaney's other poems this relates back to his own childhood, growing up on a farm in rural Derry.
Story / Structure
1. The poem is divided into two parts, the firt is notably longer and more light-hearted, the second is much darker- describing the ruin of the berries
  1. Stanza 2
    1. hoard berries in bath in byre
    2. Berries rot
  2. Stanza 1
    1. 1st berry ripens
      1. pots to collect berries in
    2. Places they go to find berries
    3. Descriptions of the berries
Senses
1. Sight
  1. "at first just one glossy clot, among others,"
2. sound
  1. "until the tinkiling bottom had been covered"
3. Touch
  1. "red, green, hard as a knot"
4. Taste
  1. "You ate the first one and its flesh was sweet"
5. smell
  1. "the juice was stinkinh too"
Language
1. The word's are librally packed and densely peppered with verbbs and adjectives which aid Heaney in establishing the tone
Key points of Analysis
1. "Late August, given heavy rain and sun for a full week"
  1. Sets the poem in context, evokes images og the summer months and harvest season
2. "At first, just one, a glossy purple clot"
  1. Heaney takes this ordinary thing and describes it in an extraordinary way. The colourful imagery makes the blackberries even more appealing
3. "Among others, red, green, hard as a knot"
  1. This is a very visual description, reminding us that we are seeing into Heaney's childhood. the discriptions of the different colours emphasises how the children would have had to wait for the berries to ripen- builds tension
4. "You ate the first one and its flesh was sweet"
  1. Hints at the potential addictive quality of the blackberry. Conjures images of the rich colours and sweet taste through the use of synesthesia
5. "Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it"
  1. Simile compare the blackberry juice to wine. The notion of blood would have appealed to a young boy who had a sense of morbid curiosity

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Blackberry Picking Seamus Heaney

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