Goal: Students will use what they’ve learned about reading and understanding poetry AND writing literary analysis to discuss the poem, “Blackberry-Picking”.
Objectives: Students will be prepared to write an analysis of the poem.
Review What strategies have you learned to help you break down a poem?
What must you always keep in mind when writing literary analysis?
Discuss “Blackberry-Picking”
Understand the prompt
Write Sample
Intros
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Important Dates
Poet
Poem Title
Basic Story
Thesis
Come to desk when called
 The Sun Also Rises Essays and novels due
Wednesday, 2/26
 1 st Independent Novel group discussion
3/3
Sample intros…
Rainy days in August picking berries throughout the country, that’s what the speaker narrates in the poem “Blackberry-Picking” by Seamus Heaney. But it is much more than simple harvesting. Heany is talking about life and the journey of…

In Seamus Heaney’s poem “Blackberry Picking” he speaks about berry picking, but also the cycle of life and the disappointments in it by using physical intensity of the language and devices such as imagery and metaphor.
Life is precious yet we’re all in it to die. “Blackberry-Picking” relates to the cycle of life. Heaney’s poem is used to explain life itself while using personification, imagery and similes.
Evidence…
“that hunger sent us out”…”like a plate of eyes”…”our palms sticky”…”we hoarded”…”but when the bath was filled”…”the sweet flesh would turn sour”