‘I come to one bush of berries so ripe it is a bush of flies,
Hanging their bluegreen bellies and their wing panes in a Chinese screen.’
The image of decaying berries covered in flies should repel the reader, but Plath makes them seem attractive, making us want to read on. Even the flies are stunning – with blue green bellies and wings like Chinese screens.
The final line in the stanza is abrupt and sudden.
‘One more hook and the berries and bushes end.’
We have travelled down the blackberry alley with Plath, and now, suddenly, it has all ended. She seems to feel no regret at this – you would think that she would at least feel some remorse, having loved the berries so much.
In the final stanza, Plath talks of the sea, and how it can finally be seen.
‘The only thing to come now is the sea,
From between two hills a sudden wind funnels at me,
Slapping it’s phantom laundry in my face.’
As I mentioned before, we get the feeling that the berries are overpowering her; pulling her down the lane. If this is the case then the sight of the sea should bring relief, and a breath of fresh air. The wind ‘funnelling’ at her seems to bring the fresh air, but we get no indication of a feeling of release at the sight of the sea. The hills give us an image of wide, open spaces, a feeling that the sea just happens to be there, rather than it being the purpose of her journey in the first place. We normally associate the sea with the seaside, childhood holidays and happy memories, but that is not the case here – it is just an immense, blank space. The feeling of emptiness is further felt in the next line, but there is also a strange element that is introduced.
‘That looks out on nothing, nothing but a great space
Of white and pewter lights, and a din like silversmiths
Beating and beating at an intractable metal.’
The lights and noise seem to indicate at building works or machinery, a modern element that is felt nowhere else in the poem. The repetition of the word nothing mirrors the first line, and brings us back to the sensation of negativity and loneliness. It is as if we have come around in a circle, from beginning to end.
In this poem, there is no regular rhyme or rhythm. The lines do not have a regular amount of syllables, something which does happen in some of Plath’s other work. Although she uses no rhyme, she does use assonance and alliteration. For example, in line 5, she uses thumb and dumb, and in the whole of the second stanza there is lots of alliteration of the letter ‘b’. The main words that are repeated throughout the poem are ‘nothing’ and ‘blackberries’, again making us feel that the blackberries dominate everything. Similarly, the title of the poem is simply ‘Blackberrying’, telling us that the blackberries overpower Plath, so that she cannot think of anything else.
As I previously mentioned, much of Plath’s work has a darker, sinister side to it, and I think that this is much the case with this particular poem. The blackberries accommodate themselves to the bottle, and Plath is drawn down the alley by hooks, both of which tell us that this is a strange poem, a poem in which the woman feels trapped, much like the berries in her bottle.
The next poem that I will be looking at also deals with the theme of blackberries – ‘Blackberry Picking’ by Seamus Heaney. This poem, like Plath’s, has a feeling like a story, but this doesn’t tell of a journey. It tells simply of young boys picking blackberries. Right at the start of the poem the scene is set, with Heaney describing the weather, and the month.
‘Late August, given heavy rain and sun,
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first just one, a glossy purple clot.’
In the first line, there is a contrast between the weather. Normally, we associate rain with unhappiness and sunshine with pleasure, which makes us wonder if maybe this is going to be a poem of mixed emotions. Heaney says that the berries would ripen for a full week, beginning with just one. This builds up the suspense and tension; makes us feel impatient at the slowness with which the berries are ripening.
The poem carries on to say;
‘Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer’s blood was in it.’
The colours here are very vivid, and make us feel as if we are actually looking at the berries. The simile ‘hard as a knot’ makes the berries seem untouchable, hard to get to. Both flesh and blood are vital for human survival, and by mentioning them here, Heaney gives the impression that the berries are indeed vital for him if he is to survive. Throughout this poem Heaney uses ‘we’, ‘you’ and ‘us’ – the complete opposite of the feeling of isolation that was present in Plath’s poem. There is strong imagery here as well, both from the colours and the description of the berries.
In the next few lines we are told how, although it was hard, the boys persevered until they had picked the berries. They were scratched, and ruined their boots, but they trekked and picked until their cans were full. This gives us an insight into how important the berries were for the boys.
‘Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s.’
Here there is alliteration of the letter ‘p’, and it also tells us of another thing that the boys had to endure whilst picking the berries – thorn pricks on their hands. ‘Sticky as Bluebeard’s’ is a rather odd simile, to which we are given no insight to the meaning.
In the next and final stanza of this poem, there is an obvious change in the mood. It goes from having the air of happy childhood memories to an unpleasant, nasty mood.
‘We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur.’
Here there are lots of hard, ‘f’ sounds, linking in with the harshness of the nasty surprise that the boys found when they looked at the berries. They hoarded the berries, much like someone would hoard money or other important goods. The line telling how they ‘found a fur’ is a sharp contrast to the tone in the previous lines. The next lines further develop on this unpleasantness.
‘A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.’
As Heaney says these lines we too feel his disappointment, his frustration. The words ‘rat-grey’ and ‘stinking’ are horrible words, but lend themselves really well to this aspect of the poem. The sweet flesh fermenting is a contrast with the first stanza, when Heaney describes the sweetness of the newly ripe flesh. Again, we have lots of sharp, ‘f’ sounds, which makes the words sound hard, and adds to the feeling of distress.
The final lines of the poem are;
‘I always felt like crying. It wasn’t fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot
Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.’
These final lines give us a real insight in to the childish feelings of frustration and disappointment that Heaney felt. By saying ‘it wasn’t fair’ we remember that this is only a child, and so he can’t really fathom why the berries are turning sour so quickly. Each year he kept on hoping, even though he knew deep down that it was useless, which shows how much the berries meant to him, and how badly he wanted them to keep. There is a feeling of wistfulness and nostalgia in the last line, like Heaney is looking back into his childhood and wishing that things could have been different.
Like Plath’s ‘Blackberrying’, this poem has no regular rhythm or rhyme. However, Heaney does use a lot of alliteration, which adds to the effectiveness of the language. He uses similes, and onomatopoeias – for example, ‘Sticky as Bluebeard’s’ and ‘tinkling bottom’.
The feeling of the poem changes between the first and last stanza, giving us the mixed emotions that I mentioned before. Heaney’s use of language allows us to share his memories with him, and this tells us that maybe he is trying to get another point across to us, a point that we have to search more deeply for. Maybe this is simply a childhood memory being recalled, or is it Heaney trying to tell us that in life, beautiful things always lose their attraction and become a disappointment to us?
The third and final poem that I am going to look at is another written by Seamus Heaney – ‘An Advancement of Learning.’ In this poem, the man confronts a major fear of his – a rat.
The poem begins with the man walking along a path, and as always, avoiding the bridge. Is the rat on the other side of the bridge, or is it something else, something that the man fears even more than the rat?
‘ I took the embankment path
As always deferring
The bridge.’
These first few lines are very compelling, and make us want to read on, to find out what is so important about the bridge that he feels the need to avoid it. The bridge is given a separate line of it’s own, and this in itself makes it seem special.
Our first inkling that something is amiss is when we read the lines
‘Something slobbered curtly, close,
Smudging the silence: a rat’
There is lots of alliteration here, both of sharp ‘c’ sounds and softer ‘s’ sounds. In this instance though, the ‘s’ sounds just add to the feeling of disgust that we feel – words like slobbered and smudging change the mood of the poem, present us with nasty images, and make us detest the rat as much as Heaney does.
Heaney goes on to tell how he tries to turn away from the rat, but another appears in front of him. He uses the word ‘nimbling’ here, which is a contrast with the sharp sounds of the previous stanza – nimbling is a delicate word, not one that we would normally associate with a rodent. Heaney then says:
‘Incredibly then
I established a dreaded
Bridgehead. I turned to stare
With deliberate, thrilled care
At my hitherto snubbed rodent.’
This encounter with the rat has quickly become a confrontation. Heaney himself seems surprised at his nerve – he says that it is ‘incredible.’ The word Bridgehead is a military term, one that soldiers use when they are about to attack the enemy. Here, Heaney has wandered into enemy territory, and he is preparing to do battle with the rat. The words ‘deliberate’ and ‘thrilled’ give an impression of heightened emotion, and it is here the man decides to stand his ground. He has previously avoided the rats, snubbing them, but here he turns and stares at one, as if daring it to do something. Heaney is facing his fear, the two opponents are facing each other and the battle seems to be about to commence.
‘Stopped, back bunched and glistening,
Ears plastered down on his knobbed skull,
Insidiously listening.’
This is like the calm before the storm. We are given further reason to detest the rat, through the use of adjectives like ‘plastered’, ‘knobbed’ and ‘glistening’. These words are harmless in their own right, but when combined to describe this rat, they become more powerful. The next stanza says:
‘The tapered tail that followed him,
The raindrop eye, the old snout:
One by one I took all in.
He trained on me. I stared him out.’
Again, Heaney uses words here that we wouldn’t normally associate with a rat. He uses the term ‘raindrop eye’ which makes the rat seem sweet, harmless. The phrase ‘old snout’ is almost affectionate! This is perhaps a hint of his changing feelings towards the rat – he is facing his fear, and becoming less repulsed. He says that the rat ‘trained on him.’ Here, the rat is seen as an enemy, training a gun on the man. The man takes the rat in, and the term ‘stared him out’ tells us that the man has won the battle, that the fear has been confronted and the man is no longer afraid.
In the next stanza, we get an insight into the man’s childhood, and we find out that this is where his fear stems from. However, he tells us that he is forgetting this part of his life, and it is perhaps this that has given him the courage to face up to the rat.
‘Forgetting how I used to panic
When his grey brothers scraped and fed.’
This seems to be a memory from his past, and it is the only time in the entire poem where we get to see inside the man, and see where this fear comes from. When he was small, he probably ran and hid when he heard or saw the rats; now he is facing them, and has the opportunity to show that he has put all that behind him.
The final stanza tells how the man finally wins the battle.
‘This terror, cold, wet-furred, small clawed,
Retreated up a pipe for sewage.
I stared a minute after him.
Then I walked on and crossed the bridge.’
The man still acknowledges that the rat causes him some terror, and he still uses the horrible adjectives to describe it. By telling us that the rat ‘retreated’, we are given the impression that the rat has given in, surrendered, and that the man has once and for all conquered his fear. The man has also got rid of his childhood fears, and maybe this poem stands for the transition to adulthood as well. The man retreats as well, in a strangely calm way. The last line is ambiguous – it could be seen as an anti climax, where the man just walks off, or it could be read as triumphant. For all his life, the man has avoided the bridge for fear of meeting a rat, but now he has conquered that fear and is able to walk freely across the bridge. As I said before, this poem could stand for the transition into adulthood, and maybe the man finally crossing the bridge is symbolising him becoming a man. The man has grown up, and there is also a recognition of loss in the final line.
This poem, like the others, has no regular rhyme or rhythm. There are many descriptive details, and Heaney makes good use of alliteration to emphasise his point.
Both Plath and Heaney use a lot of description in their poems. This allows the reader to really visualise what is happening, and coupled with their powerful language, it makes for a wonderful poem. Both also use alliteration well – it emphasises the hard sounds in the case of the rat, and the soft sounds where the blackberries are concerned. I really enjoyed these poems, but I liked ‘An Advancement of Learning’ most. This is because, from the very first line I felt compelled to read on, and find out what happened, something that I didn’t find with the other two. ‘Blackberrying’ and ‘Blackberry Picking’ are similar, but only in the fact that they are about the same subject. Plath focuses on the blackberries themselves, while Heaney focuses more on the eagerness of picking them, and the disappointment when they went sour.
By looking at all these poems, I have seen that although they may be similar in some aspects, especially in ‘Blackberrying’ and ‘Blackberry Picking’, Plath and Heaney are two very different poets. Plath deals with the darker aspects of life, whilst Heaney focuses on childhood fears and disappointments. All of us can identify with issues like these, and I think that is why both Plath and Heaney are so popular - people are able to identify with the topics that they raise, and this allows the reader to get into the very heart of the poem.
