The title of this poem doesn’t necessarily give away the true meaning of the poem. The poem is however about babies, generations and time.
POETRY COMPARISON
In both Blackberry Picking and Mali, there are many similarities of imagery. In Blackberry Picking, Heaney uses imagery to help convey his memories and experiences of his days of Blackberry Picking e.g. ‘glossy purple clot’ and ‘rat-grey fungus’.
Clarke uses really vivid imagery at the beginning of Mali e.g. ‘three years ago to the hour’ and ‘twenty miles of summer lanes’. She uses this to convey her memories and feelings of a very special and eventful day for her.
In Mali, we see that the poem is started using very precise and vivid language. She uses this to emphasise the special-ness and importance of that day.
There is especially good imagery in both the poems when Gillian and Seamus are describing the surroundings and the environment in which they are in and around. In Mali, Gillian describes the ‘apples reddening on heavy trees’ and the ‘late summer heat overspilling into harvest’. I think she this does to add to the effect of the importance of the day and what it means to her.
In Blackberry Picking, Seamus uses positive and negative imagery to convey his message. He uses positive imagery, for example when he says ‘glossy purple clot’ to describe the blackberries. This creates very good imagery and helps to convey the importance of the memories of Blackberry Picking for Seamus.
He uses negative imagery, for example when he says ‘a rat-grey fungus’ to describe the discolouration and rotted-ness of the blackberries. This creates especially good imagery to help put across the disgust-ness of the rotten blackberries.
Both poems are at least some way related to nature. We can see this from the way they use imagery to help describe how the poem is linked to nature. They do this to help create a better effect for the reader and also to try and convey the importance of the experience to both the reader and the two poets.
In Blackberry picking, Seamus uses imagery to describe the blackberries themselves and also the field he was in. He says the blackberries were ‘a glossy purple clot’ and ‘as hard as a knot’. These both create a very good image of how the blackberries looked and felt. He then describes the field by saying how the ‘wet grass bleached our boots’. He does this to help the reader to understand clearly what the poem is about and also what it means for Seamus.
In Mali, Gillian uses imagery to describe the birth and also the surrounding countryside. She writes that ‘the lanes were sweet with brambles’ and the ‘apples reddening on heavy trees’. Here she is describing how peaceful and beautiful the countryside is in the summer. This helps to give a better understanding of the feelings and emotions she was going through before the birth. Then describes the birth of the child as ‘coming easy’ too soon in the wrong place’. Here she uses negative imagery to describe how the baby came totally unexpected as it came too early and also in the wrong place.
Both the poems display negative feelings despite the obvious positive imagery shown in the poem.
In Mali, the end of each stanza is negative which causes the reader to think about the emotions and feelings of the poem e.g. ‘rocking so slowly home’ (end of stanza 1) ‘too soon in the wrong place’ (end of stanza 2) ‘even the sea could not draw me from her’ (end of stanza 3) ‘and three drops of, probably, last blood’ (end of stanza 4). These convey particular meaning to her feelings towards the baby and also her life.
In Blackberry picking, Seamus uses negative imagery to describe the rotten blackberries and also to describe his feelings during that time. He describes the blackberries as ‘like a plate of eyes’ and ‘a rat-grey fungus’. This negative imagery has a particular effect on the reader by again helping to convey his attitude towards the now-rotten blackberries.
CONCLUSION
Both the poems, Mali and Blackberry Picking convey a strong message and meaning to the poem.
The poem Mali is about a child’s 3rd birthday, so naturally it is going to be a special occasion for her.
I think Mali was written because it was such a special day for Gillian and it meant so much to her.
In my opinion, I think Mali is a very effective poem. The many feelings and emotions conveyed in the poem, along with the poetic devices, especially imagery, make it a very interesting poem to read.
The poem Blackberry Picking is about a past experience that Seamus had of blackberry picking.
I think he wrote this because he feels that the memories of blackberry picking were very special to him and he wants to remember them.
I think blackberry picking is also a very effective poem. The details of the blackberry picking are very well explained by his especially good use of vivid imagery and the other poetic devices in the poem.
