16 pages • 32 minutes read
Blackberry Picking
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“Blackberry Picking” consists of two stanzas, the first 16 lines and the second 8 lines for a total of 24 lines. Rather than separating the poem by formal guidelines, the poet divided it into two irregular halves by splitting them at the poem’s major turning point—in terms of both physical location and theme. Each stanza consists of a series of very loosely rhyming couplets, AABBCC and so forth; with only two notable exceptions, each “rhyme” uses partial or slant rhymes to communicate a feeling of rhythm rather than using true end rhymes. This gives the poem a more natural, conversational feel appropriate to the imagery while retaining the unity and coherence of more traditional work. Rare true rhymes can be found in Lines 3-4 (“clot” and knot”) and Lines 23-24 (“rot” and “not”). All four of these words rhyme, which gives the poem a circular, unified quality from beginning to end.
The poem does not follow a strict meter, although the opening lines follow a more regular iambic pentameter: “Late August, given heavy rain and sun” (Line 1) and “At first, just one, a glossy purple clot” (Line 3) follow this structure. However, the meter is inconsistent, and lines vary between 10 and 11 syllables. Like the rhyme scheme, the meter draws on traditional form while leaving breathing room for natural variations in the story.
Consonance and Assonance
Each line of the poem uses consonance and assonance at the very end to give a feeling of traditional rhyme while more closely reflecting natural human speech. For example, the ending words “sun” and “ripen” (Lines 1-2), “jam-pots” and “boots” (Lines 9-10), and “peppered” and “Bluebeard’s” (Lines 15-16) all end with the same letters, creating a visual rhyme (or eye rhyme) preceded by a similar vowel sound. These are not direct rhymes, but they constitute a related family of sounds and settle comfortably into the ear. Other examples include “byre” and “fur” (Lines 17-18) and “cache” and “bush” (Lines 19-20).
Internal consonance and assonance, which give the poem a musical quality, is subtly woven throughout the narrative. The close vowel and consonant sounds of “sun” and “one” (Lines 1, 3) is an early example of this technique, as well as “first” and “flesh” (Line 5); “sweet,” “summer’s,” and “stains” (Lines 5-7); and “Leaving” and “lust” (Line 8). These related sounds contribute to the poem’s musicality, creating the sense that one line flows seamlessly into another. Further into the first stanza there are sharper consonants repeated, such as “trekked and picked” (Line 12), “big dark blobs burned” (Line 14), and the hard Ps in “peppered / With thorn pricks, our palms sticky” (Lines 15-16). This subtle shift from softer consonants to sharper ones foreshadows the major turn of the poem.
The second, shorter stanza employs repeated sounds in “berries in the byre” (Line 17) and in the clever juxtaposition of “sweet” and “sour” (Line 21). This stanza uses F sounds throughout, in “fresh” (Line 17), “filled,” “found,” “fur” (Line 18), “fungus” (Line 19), “The fruit fermented” and “flesh” (Line 21), and finally landing on “fair” (Line 22)—one of the most subjective and human moments in the poem.
Simile and Metaphor
The poem in its entirety can be seen as an extended metaphor for growing up, coming to fruition and then watching as the body and the mind decay with time. Going from small and green (“green” often describes inexperience) to rotting away, the blackberries show the lifecycle of someone unable to gracefully relinquish their youth. This is particularly apparent in the lines “its flesh was sweet / Like thickened wine: summer’s blood was in it” (Lines 5-6), which contrasts with the later line “the sweet flesh would turn sour” (Line 21). Here the speaker recalls being in the fleeting “summer” of his life.
Line-level similes and metaphors enhance this overall image and draw the reader deeper into the poem. The first stanza describes the early berries as “hard as a knot” (Line 4), a strong visual contrast to the ripe berries “sweet / Like thickened wine” (Lines 5-6). The final line in the stanza, “our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s” (Line 16), presents the berry juice as blood for a second time. Here, however, the metaphor has gone from the sensuality of “summer’s blood” (Line 6) to something much more sinister. This transition mirrors the arc of childhood shifting into adulthood.
The second stanza is more literal than the first stanza, relying on increasingly direct language. One simile appears in “A rat-grey fungus” (Line 19), though it is more of a comparison than a true simile. The description evokes a rat hiding away in the treasure trove of fruit. While the more literal language gives the stanza a more “grown up” mood compared to the poetic imagination of the first stanza, the final line is a cumulation of the poem’s overarching metaphor: “Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not” (Line 24). While the speaker is speaking of blackberries, this moment also symbolizes the passing of time, how the speaker tried to hold onto the experiences of each year while knowing that they would inevitably slip away.
Unlock all 16 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Seamus Heaney
