Table of Contents Quick Examples for the Essay “Picking Blackberries” Example Essay “Picking Blackberries” Works Cited Quick Examples for the Essay “Picking Blackberries” » Imagery and symbolism: Analyze the use of imagery and symbolism in "Blackberry Picking" and how Heaney uses these literary devices to convey deeper meanings and emotions in the poem. Narrative voice and tone: discuss voice narrative in the poem and the tone adopted by Heaney, and examine how they contribute to the reader's understanding of the themes and themes. Nature and nostalgia: explore the themes of nature and nostalgia in "Blackberry Picking" and how Heaney's depiction of the natural world intersects with his feelings of nostalgia and memory. Metaphorical Interpretations: Interpret the poem on a metaphorical level, considering how the act of picking blackberries serves as a metaphor for broader aspects of the human experience and desire. Tension Between Pleasure and Disappointment: Analyze the tension between the initial pleasure of blackberry picking and the disappointment and decadence that follows, and discuss how this tension reflects broader themes in the Poem "Blackberry Picking." he essay Seamus Heaney was an Irish poet and known as one of the major poets of the 20th century. Heaney once described himself as someone who "came out of a hidden, buried life and entered the field of education." By the mid-1960s, Heaney was seen as part of a group of poets who were later recognized as constituting a kind of "Northern School" within Irish writing, a group stylistically varied but united because that he was born into a deeply divided society. according to religious and political criteria. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay “Blackberry picking” by Seamus Heaney is a poem about time, greed, limitations and the struggles of life and the disappointments that come with it. The poem is written retrospectively about the life of an individual. Although ostensibly written in the first person, Heaney refers to the various struggles and disappointments of life experienced by almost everyone in the pursuit of happiness. Happiness is not something you seek, but what you become. In the first stanza, the poet uses intense imagery and meaningful metaphors as well as alliteration. The poem begins with “End of August,” a time of year known for the grape harvest. As shown in the line: "For a whole week the blackberries would ripen", the poet uses the short time of a week to metaphorically express the brevity of life and the ever-elusive time. “At first, just a bright purple clot…; his flesh was sweet like thickened wine,” the language used in these lines appeals to a combination of meanings. Heaney uses berries, their attractive color and taste, as a metaphor for the many superficial attractions of life. Things on the surface may appear beautiful and fun and therefore cause a person to focus madly on achieving them in the hope that they will bring immense pleasure and happiness. The lines “You only ate one and its flesh was soft…leaving stains on your tongue and wanting to pick.” On the surface, Heaney may appear to be referring to blackberries and their sweet taste that would linger on the tongue, compelling a person to eat more of them. These lines, upon further analysis, can be seen as an analogy to the many attractions of life such as money, fame or love. These attractionscan have an intoxicating effect on people and almost turns them into drug addicts who almost feel compelled to return to it again and again. Heaney goes on to say how these berries make you a slave to desire as the speaker expresses “Send us no more milk cans, cans of peas, jars of jam; where the brambles scratched and the wet grass whitened our boots. This desire for more is so strong that it can have a controlling effect on the person. The variety of containers mentioned for picking berries is an analogy to the crazy impulse of a desire that can push a person to use any means to achieve it. The imagery used in the second line almost makes the reader see the scratched hands and discolored boots in the quest for the berries. Again, this is a metaphor that when an individual has a worldly desire, they will do everything possible to achieve it, no matter what harm it might do to them. A person's ambitions can push them to forget about all risks and go for what they want. Heaney uses onomatopoeia: “ringing from the bottom” to almost make the reader hear the strange containers filled with blackberries. The sound of the berries filling the containers is a source of joy for the picker. Although this may not be true for berries. The use of personification “like a plate of eyes” makes the reader imagine the blackberries looking at the picker wondering why they were picked. This disappointment with berries when picking can translate into the fact that what a person may want so wildly may not be the best for them. “Our hands dotted with loving pricks, our palms sticky like Bluebeard” in this extract, Heaney uses imagery coupled with allusions and similes. The picker's hands are bruised with thorns and sticky with the blood of the berries like those of Bluebeard. Bluebeard is a storybook character who murdered his wives with his bare hands and so they were sticky with blood. This is a reference to how a person may use inappropriate means to achieve their ambitions. In the last stanza, using imagery, Heaney brings out the airy disappointment that follows the fulfillment of desires. “But when the bath was full, we found a fur; A rat-gray mushroom that rushes into our cache; The juice stank too. Heaney used sensory and visual imagery here. Once the container was full, the picker could see mushrooms eating the berries and they began to rot and smell bad. This is also the case with fame, wealth or love and much of this is due to hedonic adaptation, which is really just human beings getting used to what happens to them . Once a person gets what he was madly looking for, he adapts to it and then yearns for something else. He realizes that this thing doesn't give him the continued happiness he thought he would get from it. And all the time and effort spent getting there can seem wasted. “I always wanted to cry. It wasn't fair; That all the nice cans smelled like rot. The use of the juxtaposition "beautiful cans" and "smell of rot" highlights the stark contrast between the two states the berries were in when they went from an object of desire to something repulsive. And this injustice of the situation makes you cry like a child. This metaphorically represents the disillusionment one may experience after fulfilling one's hedonistic desires, as they may not provide one's perceived happiness. “Every year I hoped they would continue, I knew they wouldn’t.” Heaney,.