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AP English
Mr. Young
10 August 2007
Poetry Assignment #1
Galway Kinnell’s “Blackberry Eating” is an excellent example of how sound
enhances poetry. Kinnell’s outstanding use of repeated alliterations gives the poem a
different feel than many other poems. The constant use of soft sounds, interrupted
quickly by a few hard sounds develops the feeling that Kinnell wanted the reader to feel.
The repetitive use of certain words slows the reader down to allow them to cherish the
poem, and the blackberries longer.
At first glance of the poem you realize it is one long run-on sentence. When you
get to read it, you get the feeling that the thoughts are not in a logical order, and the fact
that they are only separated by commas, or one semi-colon gives the greater impression
that the person is simply sputtering out whatever comes to their mind at the second. It’s
meant to give the impression that the reader is excited, and although the poem is read as a
slow one, you still get the feeling that it’s a collection of random thoughts.
The many soft sounds throughout the poem give a happy feeling to the poem. In
the first three lines the first alliteration is used: “I love to go out in late September /
among fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries / to eat blackberries for breakfast”. The
repetition of the soft ‘b’ sound sets the mood for the poem. It lets you know that it is a
happy experience, that it is something enjoyable to the character. The repetition of the
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‘bl’ sound allows you to feel the word ‘blackberry’ on your tongue. A connection that is
later made in the poem.
The one hard break of the poem is in line 4: “the stalks very prickly, a penalty”.
The hard ‘p’ sound lets you feel how hard and prickly the stalks are, and the word
“penalty” reinforces that point. The soft ‘b’ alliteration continues in lines 5-8 with the
reuse of the redundant “black…blackberry” (5-6) and the use of the line “the ripest
berries / fall almost unbidden to my tongue” (7-8). Again the soft sounds just continue
the same mood of the soft, happy moment.
The final alliteration begins when the character wants the reader to feel how the
blackberries feel on the tongue:
like strengths or squinched
many-lettered, one-syllable lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open and splurge well
in the silent, startled icy black language (10-13).
The alliteration with the‘s’ sounds creates the same effect as the ‘b’ alliteration, however
the words themselves create the effect of tricking the tongue into feeling a berry
squishing on it. This example allows the reader to develop a deeper connection with the
poem, and greatly increase the realness and feeling of the poem.
The alliterations of this poem greatly increase its overall effect. The effectiveness
comes through when those alliterations are read, especially when the final alliteration is
read, the reader can feel what the character is describing. Overall without the alliterations
this poem would have no meaning or feeling to it.