Commentary on Blackberry Picking
The poem blackberry picking is about the childhood memories of the poet. It is addressed to a childhood friend of the poet or to the reader, one cannot be quite sure. This is made known in the fifth line with the words, “You ate that first one”. This you indicates that the reader has gone through similar experiences or has shared the experience with the poet.
The poem is quite obviously about how in his childhood the poet would collect blackberries during the season and always too many of them to eat and so they would rot eventually. This type of a memory is generally a joyous one for most people, however there are a lot of dark indications in the story. The use of the word clot to describe the ripe blackberries is the first of these darker indications. This clot seems to bring blood to one’s mind and as if on cue just two lines later there is a mention of blood in the poem. Also in the very next line the word stain is used to describe the purple coloring of the tongue caused by the eating of blackberries. The words clot, stain and blood seem to have a connection and together they seem to be very dark and ominous. There is further use or presence of these dark indications in the poem as in when Bluebeard is mentioned. Bluebeard was a nobleman infamous for murdering his wives. This is followed by use of the words “rat-grey fungus” and the mention of these blackberries to be rotting and stinking. I feel that in the poem the poet is trying to give a message to the reader through the example of blackberries. The flesh of the blackberries represents the personality of people and the blackberries themselves represent people in general. Hence the message I see in the poem is that all people are born good of heart but as they age their personality begins to rot and so does their body and thus Heaney tries to tell the reader how temporary everything in this world is and how nothing remains the same forever.
