The poem opens with a scenario dominated by blackberries so that we gain an impression of
delicious blackness everywhere-"nothing , nothing but blackberries." (Line 1) The concept of
the twisting lane is created by Plath using an image of "hooks"-bends which the solitary berry-
harvester, the poet, cannot see past. We are told the sea is "somewhere at the end of it" (Line
4)and we are exposed to the first nuances of limbo and hopelessness when we learn that it is
"heaving" (Line 4)-an apparently strange word to choose to describe the unseen conjured up
sea on a windy but sunny September day. Perhaps, even at this early stage of the poem the
poet finds the thought of the sea which will greet her at the end of the lane as threatening. Yet it
is the berries that demand the poet's and our attention as they are described with highly
illustrative similes- "Big as the ball of my thumb , and dumb as eyes/Ebon in the hedges, fat/
With blue-red juices." (Lines 5-7) The blackberries are not hostile or indifferent. An interesting
metaphor in "Blackberrying" is in the line, "These they squander on my fingers. I had not asked
for such a blood sister hood. (Lines 7-8) It is as if the juice from the blackberries is their
blood, almost as if they are sacrificing it. It then goes on to describe her as she imagines them
inviting her into their sorority. She has pricked her fingers on the thorns of blackberries- when
her blood mixes with the juices of the blackberries it is as if she has been blood bonded into
their sorority, yet she has not asked for this.
The wind features prominently and is represented as a vigorous force which, while not uniformly
hostile , is dominant, uncontrollable and yet influential upon the poet and the natural territory in
which she has placed herself. In the second stanza we are shown an image of noisy crows
circling and "protesting , protesting" against the ominous presence of the sea which will shortly
be encountered. (Line 10) As the speaker describes the birds in the wind as "Bits of burnt
paper wheeling in a blown sky" their protesting voice causes her to remark-"I do not think the
sea will appear at all."(Lines 12-13) Then the image of lusciousness is compromised as the poet
encounters the corruption of excess as she comes to-"One bush of berries so ripe it is a bush of
flies,/Hanging their blue-green bellies and their wing panes in a Chinese screen./ The honey-feast
of the berries has stunned them; they believe in heaven."(Lines 15-17) The cheerful mood of
the walker which seemed to exist at the commencement of the poem declines as the undertones
of decay and nothingness begin to take over the poet's outlook. The reader is left unsettled
because of the image of flies, which are usually seen around decay and death.
The third stanza has the colorful image of laundry slapping her in the face and a mechanical
image of silversmiths working with an "intractable metal." (Line-20) These images are after the
beauty of the natural images. There is a strong image of the path, which ends at the "hills’
northern face, and the face is orange rock," but the view is of "nothing, nothing but a great
space." (Line 19) emphasizes the empty and bleak mood of the poem. This is a connection to
the nothing sentence at the beginning of the poem. The magnificence of the se is an example of
the sublime because of the feeling that there is something terrible there. The "beating and
beating" produces a "din" that doesn't seem quite natural. (Lines 26-27)As the lane in the poem
ends, the wind, becomes more aggressive until at last the speaker is faced with the all-
threatening, all-consuming sea which is everywhere. We feel her hysteria is not far away-her
sense of hopelessness, although perhaps temporarily appeased by blackberry-picking, has
returned with a vengeance.
Entirely, the central image of the 1st stanza is of nature and the blackberries that "love" and are
friendly to her. In the 2nd stanza, the image is of birds and flies that are "protesting." The sea is
the central image of the 3rd stanza with the wind slapping and the sea beating.
The language Plath uses in "Blackberrying" is colourful as she creates wonderful images. The
repetition of "blackberries," in the first stanza together with "big," "ball," "ebon," "blue-red," and
"blood" all support the image of a profusion of berries. Plath also uses color to cement the
mood-the berries are "ebon," juices are "blue-red," flies are "bluegreen," the sea is "white and
pewter" under "orange" rock. And further, give ear to the linked consonance of "green,"
"panes," screen," "stunned," "heaven" wave-rhythms scored throughout the poem, so that we
know the oceanic has been inside us all along. Also the language is both rhythmic and lyrical. It
is almost as if the voice of the speaker reaches out to the reader. The poem comes directly
form the speaker and she is characterized by what she is saying. Plath's morbid fascination with
death and how to attain it flow from the poem as if in speech. It makes it easier for one to
comprehend death, and that the will to die can be a hidden desire in man himself.
The mood of "Blackberrying" begins buoyantly and continues, in spite of some sinister
undertones, with much optimism to show colorful and vivid descriptions of the nature of the late
summer lonely lane and its luscious, if flawed, fruits. This airy positive view suddenly collapses
within the last stanza into a form of gloomy certainty with the swift discontinuation of the lane
and its replacement by intimidating images of the nihilistic cliffs and ominous oblivion of the sea-
this could be referred to as a death image.
There is a path in Sylvia Plath's "Blackberrying" that the speaker takes to the sea, where poem's
end is matched to land's end, where we stand enchanted by the rhythms. This path in
"Blackberrying" is, a path in progress. "Intractable"-by inviting the substance in, by letting it
repeat, bear out the raw matter of itself. She has found a way to "tract,"-it draws, it connects, it
manages, it discusses itself. Like most other good poems, it is about poetry, whatever else is at
issue. The intractability sends us back, in search of what matters, though the matter itself seems
resistant to meaning.
"Blackberrying" tries to celebrate the fruitfulness of nature-the temporarily comfortable yet
despair-prone poetic voice being abruptly overwhelmed by a sense of pointlessness and ruin at
the end of the piece. On first reading "Blackberrying" with its delightful images of innocent
activity during a late summer day, I shared the poet's own disappointment as her short walk
came to an end and she was swamped by a sudden feeling of hopelessness so that I found
myself wishing she had just turned her back on the sea and retraced her steps while picking
blackberries this time on the left mainly.
