POETRY

“DIGGING AND BLACKBERRY PICKING”

Background

The poem is about a Heaney childhood who was brought up on a farm of blackberry picking. When the conditions were ripe there was heavy "rain and sun" and the blackberries would ripen (Noel-Tod & Hamilton, 2013). It was compelling and children would assembled many cans and harvest up the blackberries that were enough to fill a bath. The blackberries were in plenty as they could not finish them which were a repeat pattern every year (Collins, 2003). Both Heaney father and grandfather were farmers and it was no exception that Heaney would become different as he would venture into the same field when he grew old. However, as fate would have it Heaney was fairly good in his studies that earned him a place in a high-status boarding school. He graduated with a first class honors degrees proving it otherwise as he would not follow the footsteps of the father and the grandfather. He later became an English teacher (Collins, 2003).

Structure

The structure of the poem is alienated into two sections that describe a assemblying of the blackberries and their utilization and the other half concentrated on the ruins of the reminder (Noel-Tod & Hamilton, 2013). In this poem, Heaney makes use of his customary enjambment as he uses rhyme that portrays the unavoidable process of life “clot and knot” and the half rhyme that proposes frustrations that we feel through the experiences of living “sweet in it”.

Title

The blackberry title by Heaney does not give a full indication of what the poem is all about but indeed it talks about the blackberry picking at least on one level especially at the first stanza. However, the title has a deeper meaning in the second stanza as it shows the restraint part of Heaney. Instead, the poem slowly helps the reader reveal the more possibilities of the title as it progresses (Collins, 2003).

Themes

The poem is concerned with a recognition process of nature when the blackberries grow before they eventually rot. The significant and the personal theme of Heaney is the disappointment with the lifestyle that was based on agriculture as he desired to do more with his life. He also felt guilty about the feeling of wanting to do something more as he would be diverting from what his family expected of him (Noel-Tod & Hamilton, 2013). This is an exploration of dissatisfaction due to the object of desire that shows Heaney as unveiling greed. In the blackberries poem, there has been an extension of metaphor in the agricultural lifestyle as Heaney is seen to enjoy his rural life as a child supported by the vivid excitement of the blackberry picking but still he was is seen to be disillusioned when the blackberries began to rot (Collins, 2003).

There is an idea of the transitory nature of pleasure in the poem of how good things do not last for long as they have a limited lifespan that relates to his childhood experience of picking the blackberries. Moreover, there is a celebration of delight and the childhood innocence that is illustrated to be short lived. It can be said that great amount of fulfillment results to the destruction of desire. It is detached from its habitat in the sun and stored whose existence is later shattered, changing extremely beyond identification and the celebration of the hostile power by time (Noel-Tod & Hamilton, 2013). A lesson has not been learned as there is a frequent fantasy that takes hold where there is continuous awareness of life. The children do not sustain the delusion but there is a temptation for another that is always succumbed to.

Language

The words in the poem are densely packed as they are liberal with adjectives and verbs in order to establish a tone. It is intentional that it is too affluent as the epic fill up the jaws with blackberries and there is plenty that is left and stored (Collins, 2003). The poem is hypnotic due to its unrelenting linguistic concentration. The thickened wine is an example of the rich linguistic as it suggests a sophisticated taste. It also implies the effect of intoxicating it has on children creating enthusiasm. However, despite the rich use of linguistic, there is a plentifully sonorous expression of words that has a negative version towards the reward of the blackberries (McConnell & Palgrave Connect, 2014). Heaney makes a limited application of pronoun such as us, we and our in an impersonal educational manner. However, the blackberries dominate the first stanza of the poem while the second stanza consents to Heaney with his anonymous cohorts to encroach in the wealthy environment of the blackberries.

Tone

The “lust” of the blackberries “Summer blood” in it is a tone that contrasts the juice of the berries to that blood of the summer reminding the reader of the vibrant red color, the rich taste, the sensual pleasure that came by picking and tasting as well as the violent and the guilt that Heaney had due to the association of the berries (McConnell & Palgrave Connect, 2014). Their flesh is regarded to be as sweet as blood that results to the children willingness to suffer the pain in order to satisfy the hunger. Henley tone then becomes decidedly worrying when he says that the blackberries are “like the plates of the eye”.

The last section of the second stanza, there is an secluded description of gluttony blackberries pickers who were half innocent as their horror and jealousy ruin the prize (Noel-Tod & Hamilton, 2013). The use of "hoard" to the blackberries was a way of glut. It further continues with a huffy nature of a distressed child who said “it was not fair” as the “lovely cans” which were full “smell of rot” of the blackberries. This concludes with a distance of accepting tone, grave disclosing the acknowledgment of the children that the berries would no “keep” up with time.

Mood

The verbal communication of the poem and the rich rhythm leads to a non-judgmental poem but faintly shows an oppressive mood due to the immense of the intense “rains” and the “sun” in the concluding month of August. The half sickening of the blackberries desires and hunger is supplementary of the mentality than the appetite that compels the pickers. The mood describes possessiveness and greediness that made them pick even the unripe ones in order to fill a bath. The “rat-grey fungus” is a disgust that shows half of envy and horror (Collins, 2003). The question of destruction to the sweet flesh shows desperation for more generating a mood to the reader. Each progressive year there was a more desire for the blackberries while they knew their fate.

Poetic Devices

Heaney has extensively used poetic devices in the poem. The flesh, pricks, palms, sweet and sour had a deeper meaning that incorporated much in the poem. Heaney also used vocabulary that has varying sounds that would create an image to the reader (Noel-Tod & Hamilton, 2013). Instead of eating the blackberries Heaney put it like thickening wine to generate a deeper meaning. Similar sounds of hayfields, "milk cans, at pea tins", have been frequently used to illustrate the rich harvest of the blackberries.

Imagery

Imagery has played a significant role in the poem. “Big dark blobs” has been used to suggest a spongy formless stability of the ripe berries in the container. “Like a plate of eye” is a simile used to describe the blackberries filled by the children in the container. This implies that the berries are round, spongy, luscious and squidgy (McConnell & Palgrave Connect, 2014). The imagery continues as it references to blood and flesh in the first stanza. The image of Heaney guilt of the agricultural life can be vividly seen as he is disappointed. The use of “eyes” that are described to be watching him burn into himself they are seen to silently judge Heaney as he lacked loyalty to his rural life whose weather is described by the “wet grass”.

The image of the health berries is devoured by the “rat-grey fungus” as the moulds in a manner which they spread quickly all over the bathtub that further contaminates his earlier rural lifestyle enjoyment. “Filled with fur” is an alliteration that draws attention to the speedy disintegration of the rotting berries (Collins, 2003). There is a deeper significance of the image “I always felt like crying” as it shows events of the agricultural life from a child’s perspective. The use of “cache” portrays an image of a precious storage of the blackberries that has shown the value the children placed on the berries. ‘milk cans, jam pots, pea tins” reinforced the image of a rural environment as there was handmade jam and there were cows that were milked.

Agent and Victims of Change in the Poem

There are prominent objects and characters in the blackberry picking.  First, the children pickers used the milk cans and other types of cans that would take away their wealth and the blackberries. The image of the brood represents uncontrolled yearning as they give in to "lust" of the sweet taste that later they were hoarding as too many to be exhausted (McConnell & Palgrave Connect, 2014). The children are managed by their desire as they symbolize humankind in the poem, jealousy which is gutted by “cache” and prejudice as “it isn’t fair”.  The blackberries had special connotations one of which it was a yearly summer ritual and the other as an item of satisfaction due to “trekking” and “picking”.

Secondly, the use of the blackberries was strongly pleasing as the berries are “glossy purple” and are “sweet flesh”. The richness of the blackberries is desirable due to the content of the “summer’s blood”. Heaney is also challenged by the nature of the law of “hope” and “keep”. The berries then inexorably change to the “smell of rot” (Collins, 2003).

Lastly, the blackberries are shady as they can merely be “first just eaten”. The delight of consuming the berries is overtaken by the greediness which finally they are lost with time as they should have remained in the bush. The pain is further multiplied when the berries are affected by an external power “fur” (Collins, 2003).

 

 

 

 

 

Reference

Collins, F. (2003). Seamus Heaney: The crisis of identity. Newark [u.a.: University of Delaware Press [u.a..

In Noel-Tod, J., & In Hamilton, I. (2013). The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry. Oxford University Press

McConnell, G., & Palgrave Connect . (2014). Northern Irish poetry and theology. Palgrave Macmillan