An Interesting Analysis of ‘Blackberry Picking’
Story
In the childhood world of Blackberry-Picking, it is late August. If conditions are ripe,
if there is "heavy ran and sun", the "blackberries... ripen". The first bite is addictive,
and the children gather containers together and pick blackberries, enough to fill a
bath. But they cannot eat them all, and "the fruit ferment[s]". Every year the pattern
repeats, they always gather too much.
Structure
The poem is divided into two parts, the first longer, describing the gathering of the
blackberries, and their consumption, and the second about half that length, the ruin of
the remainder. The line length is much greater than in the later poems, but Heaney
makes his customary use of enjambment and an almost prose-like grammatical
structure in Blackberry-Picking. Heaney quite often uses rhyme to depict the
inevitable processes of life ("clot... knot"), and half-rhyme to suggest the
dissatisfaction we feel through our experience of living ("sweet... in it").
Language
The words, densely packed, peppered liberally with verbs and adjectives, establish the
tone. It is intentionally almost too rich. The poem fills the mouth as the blackberries
do. The poem becomes hypnotic in its unrelenting linguistic intensity. However, the
poet is careful to balance the copiously sonorous phrases with words that more than
hint at a darker side to the bounty of blackberries.
Heaney makes scant use of any pronoun in the first part of the poem. There is a
reference to "you", used in an impersonal, educational manner - "you ate the first
one... ", and a reference to "we" and "our". It is, however, the blackberries that are
allowed to dominate this part of the poem. The second part allows the speaker and his
unnamed companions to intrude upon the opulent nature of the blackberries.
However, all their emotions are involved in the "lovely canfuls".
Tone
The "lust" for blackberries is a blood lust whilst there is an allusion to more adult
sources of sensual pleasure. Their "flesh [is] sweet", like "blood". The children are
willing to suffer a great deal of pain to satisfy "that hunger". Then Heaney's tone
becomes decidedly ominous - the blackberries are "like a plate of eyes", their palms
are stained with the juice, as "Bluebeard's" were stained with blood.
The final part of the poem is a desolate depiction of the half-innocent greed of the
blackberry-pickers, and their horror and jealousy at their prize's ruin. They "hoard"
the blackberries in the way that the "rat-grey fungus... glut[s]" on it. It continues in the
petulant tone of an upset child - "It wasn't fair/That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot"
and concludes in a more distant, grave, accepting tone, revealing that even the child
knew the berries would not "keep".
Mood
The luxurious rhythm and language of the poem leads to an indulgent, but slightly
oppressive mood, as if the reader is immersed in the "heavy rain and sun" of "late
August". The desire for the blackberries is half-sickening, a hunger that is more in the
mind than in the stomach drives the pickers. They are possessive and greedy, picking
even the unripe "green ones", filling a "bath". The disgust at the "rat-grey fungus" is
half horror and half envy. How dare it destroy the "sweet flesh"? The child is
desperate for more. Each year he yearns for more blackberries, though he knows their
fate.
Poetic Devices.
Heaney makes extensive use of poetic devices in Blackberry-Picking. Examples of his
alliteration include "first... flesh", "peppered... pricks... palms", "berries... byre", "fur...
fungus", "fruit fermented... flesh" and "sweet... sour". Heaney also uses a vocabulary
rich with varying sounds, so that saying the poem is rather like eating the blackberries
- it is "like thickened wine". Similar sounding words are used frequently; "milk-cans,
pea-tins, jampots", "hayfields, cornfields", "trekked and picked", "fungus, glutting",
meaning that the poem much be read slowly to savour its resonant cadences.
Agents of change, and victims of change, in the poem
There are three prominent objects and characters in Blackberry-Picking. There are the
child blackberry-pickers, carrying "milk-cans, pea-tins, jam-pots", the "fur" that steals
their treasure, and the blackberries themselves.
The children are an image of unrestrained desire. They succumb to the "lust
for/Picking" easily, savouring the sweet taste of the first berry, but hoarding the rest in
numbers they cannot possibly consume. They are controlled by their craving. They,
too, represent humanity in the poem, in their envy of that which is "gutting on [their]
cache", and their sense of injustice - "it [isn't] fair" that what they have so greatly
desired and gained is snatched from them by the swift processes of time.
The "fungus" is the first explanation called by the speaker for the destruction of their
"cache". It aids in the destruction of their fruit, and is the object of their hatred and
derision. However, "once off the bush... the sweet flesh would turn sour" by its nature.
The speaker knows this, although he does not acknowledge it to the end of the poem.
The blackberries attract several differing connotations. First, they are part of
childhood, a yearly summer ritual, an object of enjoyment, of "trekk[ing] and
pick[ing]" throughout the countryside. The childhood-pleasure aspect of blackberry
picking is emphasised by the children's choice of containers - household objects,
cheap and in easy reach.
Next, the blackberries are intensely desirable, they are "glossy purple", they have
"sweet flesh", they "tinkl[e]" pleasantly when thrown into a container. It is their
richness that is so desirable, their contents "summer's blood".
They are also ephemeral, which is part of their desirability. Every year the speaker
challenges the laws of nature and "hope[s] they [will] keep". Even as the picking days
are continuing the berries grow from "green" to "red" and finally "ink... up" to "big
dark blobs". They change inexorably, finally, "once off the bush" and finally "smel[l]
of rot".
Finally, the blackberries corrupt. Only "at first [can] just one" be eaten. The pure
enjoyment of the eating is subsumed by greed for more, until finally, most are lost to
the processes of time, when they should have been left on the bush. The pain involved
in getting them is multiplied when they are consumed by an outside force, the "fur".
Theme
Blackberry-Picking explores the dissatisfaction often involved in gaining an object of
desire. Heaney is unveiling greed. The unrestrained quest for more of the same, for
greater amounts of fulfilment leads to the destruction of the object of desire. Removed
from its home in the sun, and hoarded, life is slowly destroyed, changed beyond
recognition and enjoyment by hostile forces and by time.
Often, however, the lesson is not learnt. A recurring delusion takes hold, where there
is a perpetual consciousness that life, love and youth do not "keep", but the temptation
for another try is always succumbed to.