Blackberry Picking  By Séamus Heaney ( )

Séamus Heaney – Fact File -An Irish poet, born in Derry. -Lectured in Belfast. -Won the Nobel Prize for literature in Moved with his wife and three children to Wicklow in He won many awards throughout his life. -Has been described as “the most important Irish poet since Yeats.” and “the greatest poet of our age”.

Blackberry Picking  It is late August  There has been heavy rain and sunshine.  The blackberries are ripening.  From the first bite they are addictive.  The children gather them in containers.  However, they can’t eat them all, and so, the fruit ferments/rots.  This happens every year, when they gather too much.

Structure  1 st half of the poem deals with the gathering and the eating of the blackberries.  2 nd half of the poem deals with the ruin of what’s left.

Language  Heaney uses rich language.  Lots of verbs and adjectives.  He seems to use very rich language on purpose. As you read the poem, the words fill your mouth, just like the blackberries.  The use of language is intense and hypnotic.

Tone TTTThe children are suffering from the pain of wanting to satisfy their “hunger” ““““Like a plate of eyes” – Simile TTTTheir palms are stained with juice – “Bluebeards” stained with blood IIIIn the final part, the children “hoard” the blackberries, but they begin to grow a “rat-grey fungus…gluts” ““““It wasn’t fair/That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot” – Even the children knew the berries would not “keep”.

Mood  The desire for the blackberries is half-sickening.  The children become greedy – they even pick unripe “green ones”, filling a “bath”.  They are disgusted when they see “rat-grey fungus”  They want more each year – but they know what will happen to them.

Alliteration  “first……flesh”  “berries……byre”  “fruit fermented……flesh” Can you find any other examples? The poem is like eating blackberries – “like thickened wine”

Imagery  Child blackberry-pickers  Carrying “milk-cans, pea-tins, jam-pots”  “fur” that steals the treasure.  The blackberries themselves.  The children are an image for desire – They can’t resist picking them.  They crave them.  It’s not fair that what they desired, is snatched away by time.  They know they will not last, but they don’t want to recognise this.