Blackberry Picking
 By Séamus Heaney
(1939-2013)
Séamus Heaney –
Fact File
-An Irish poet, born in Derry.
-Lectured in Belfast.
-Won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995.
-Moved with his wife and three children to Wicklow in
1972.
-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
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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
 1st half of the poem deals with the
gathering and the eating of the
blackberries.
 2nd 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
 The children are suffering
from the pain of wanting to
satisfy their “hunger”
 “Like a plate of eyes” – Simile
 Their palms are stained with
juice – “Bluebeards” stained
with blood
 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
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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.