Although Heaney uses an effective piece of onomatopoeia when describing how the hard-unripened berries hit the ‘tinkling bottom’ of the metal can his simile when the ripe berries stare up from the bottom ;
‘Like a plate of eyes’ is a frightening image-that makes the darker berries seem scary and almost sinister. This links with the idea that the berry-pickers ‘hands look like blood covered hands of a mass-murder like bluebeard. There hands will be dripping with juice-like his would have been dripping with blood.
Blackberry pickers is about a happy childhood Early Purges however reveals a different aspect of the country. The poem is a true story about his childhood
Heaney begins the poem with a bald line;
‘ I was six when I first saw kittens drown’ although it is a very sad sentence it has a lot feeling in it, it must have been a very sad time for him and at the age of six he must have been very angry as well.
The person who kills animals is Dan and poor Heaney watch’s him ‘their soft paws scraping like mad’ on the side trying to get out the kittens would have been calling for there mums milk and the where young that could hardly see wondering where they where. It is powerful sentence because it tells you a lot
Although Heaney sees it as a very bad thing and cruelty to animals when on the other had Dan thing it is aright;
‘sure isn’t it better for them now’ in this sentence Dan I trying to tell Heaney that it will prevent them from cruelty and it is better for them.
Heaney was ‘suddenly frightened’ and sadly hung around hoping he would not do it again but unfortuly he did he;
‘ trapped big rats, snared rabbits shot crows or with a sinkening tung pulled old hens necks’ in this there is a list a three and it is a a nasty sentence to know what he did to the animals it is not a nice thought and must have been terrible for Heaney.
Heaney was getting and still didn’t like what he did to the animals but he had started to realise it ‘made sense’ all the time he would hang around until he forgot them he could now understand why Dan did it was for a good cause.
Prevention of cruelty doing it because;
‘on well run farms pest have to be kept down’ because they cant afford to keep them all feed they migth keep one or to to keep the rats and birds away.
The follower is another story about Heaney’s childhood, the follower is about his Dad working on the farm and Heaney following him around. Heaney starts the poem with a line about his dad;
‘my father worked with a horse-plough’ Heaney would follow his Dad up and down the field all day long. His dad would have been annoyed with him.
His Dad was an expert;
‘The sod rolled over without breaking at the head rig a single pull, this shows his expertise he didn’t even have to touch the reins. This paragraph and the next are continues to show the continues movement of the horses going up and down the field ‘ his eyes would map the ground’ to find out where the bumps where and how deep and so he could get his balance on the hard.
Heaney would stumble a lot so;
‘he rod me on his back’ my Dad would so I didn’t fall and hurt myself. This would also show his expertise because he can have his son on his back as well as ploughing the field and controlling the horses.
When Heaney grows up he wants to be like his Dad he would ‘close one eye and stiffen up one of his arms’ and pendent. In this paragraph and the next Heaney is addressing the speech to the audience.
He was an ‘nuisance, tipping, falling and always yapping’ in this there is a list of three and a onomatopoeia, but now;
‘Its my Dad who keeps stumbling behind me and will not go away. Here it means that he has grown up and his Dad is making Shaw he is doing his job right.