Analyzing Seamus Heaney's 'Blackberry Picking'

"Blackberry Picking" Timed Writing In "Blackberry Picking" by Seamus Heaney, he describes how he would pick all of the blackberries in the summer. They would pick all of the blackberries and keep them for themselves, and soon they would turn bad and grow mold. Heaney conveys this simple act in a very hauntingly beautiful yetand bittersweet, but also delves way while delving into a deeper understanding and connection to the bigger picture of life. Heaney tries to convey the fact that the berries went bad because the pickers were too greedy and selfish in their picking and hoarding. This can be connected to life, and give us the life lesson that greed is not a good trait to have, and it always comes with karma. He portrays this Tthrough his
very dark diction, he which creates a foreboding tone, and by his specific figurative language and descriptions that create a certain image in the reader''s head as to exemplify his point.
The diction, from the beginning of the poem, is very important in creating the necessary tone to aid in gettingportray his purpose across. The words are very dark and extreme diction, while the contrasts the innocent subject matter is very innocent, picking blackberries. In the beginning, he describes the berries as having "summers blood...in it" that "[leave]stains upon the tongue an d a lust for picking" (Heaney, lines 6-8). By using words such as "blood, "stains", and "lust", the poem's subject matter is headed seen in a much more harshintense and mysterious tone, somehow foreboding, whereas it could be very happy and whimsical, what one usually feels while on a normal berry-picking trip. But t. This tone created forcesmakes the reader to s feel the weight behind the
poems simple plot. The reader can realize that this berry-picking trip symbolizes something dark about the worldmeaning. The specific word, "lust", also has a sinfulbad connotation., andBy using it to explain the pickers' feelings, it subtly hints at the symbolic feeling the speaker has, namely, the speaker's greedspeakers greed. After their initial taste of the blackberries, the less ripe berries "inked up and that hunger sent [them] out" to go pick more. Using the word hunger creates the feelingmakes the reader feel that they are being propelled by a feeling inside of them, greedhunger. The reader can identify that Heaney actually means greed. His choice of words and their effectaffect on the poem were not necessary in not creating the poem, but describing his deeper understanding of the event. He is using this summertime event to expose a person's greed, and this normal event can show us how it can infect us in everything we do. Heaney also showed us (the reader) different images that enhanced and made more prominent his overallunderall purpose.
After they pick all the blackberries, their "palms [are] sticky as Bluebeard's". Bluebeard was a character who murderedkilled his wives. By comparing the pickers and Bluebeard, the reader feels as if the blackberry picking was not so innocent as it appearedpicks up on the maturity of the summertime affair. The reader cany see the connection because both have greedyful qualities in both. This starts to point towards the theme of the poem, showing how everyone, from Bluebeard the murderer, to a simple person picking blackberries, is capable of feeling and acting on greed. Heaney also explainsshows how the pickers' ir "hands were peppered with thorn pricks" and the "briars scratched and bleached [their] shoes" (Heaney, lines 15-16, 10). This could be seen as a negative image by the reader. These are negative, yet subtle, consequences the reader can point out. The reader could ask wWhy would this trouble would come to people simplyonly picking blackberries.? Heaney put that in there, and chose not to leave it out for that purpose.Heaney added these details as to point towards his theme and purpose. It helps deepen and un-simplify the event by showing these little consequences happening to "innocent" people. But, this helps the reader pick up on the purpose, to expose how greed can be found everywhere, even simple and enjoyable tasks such as this. Near the end,
he says "that all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot". The reader can see the image of such a good, positive thing gone to waste, all because of the greed of the pickers. This fills out elaborates one the point that Heaney was trying to make about greed; greed is always followed comes withby karma. Karma is the idea that anything a person does is either rewarded or punished, depending on whether what the person did was good or bad. This greedy act is followed by bad karma, the canfuls of rot, and helps drive Heaney's point home.