Poetry commentary on Seamus Heaney's Blackberry-Picking

        The children in the poem went out “with milk cans, pea tins, [and] jam pots” to collect their treasure. They had high hopes of the blackberries and expected nothing less than a taste “sweet like thickened wine”. The children worked hard getting the berries, going “where briars scratched and wet grass bleached [their] boots.” They felt that even though the berries came at a price they were worth the sacrifice. These children “hoarded the fresh berries in the byre” hoping to keep the “glossy purple clots” for as long as possible. However the children return to find fur on the fresh berries and that “the sweet flesh [had gone] sour.” The narrator as a boy would always cry with disappointment. But as the year went on he seemed to forget what had happened that fall and would do the same thing the next year. The last line, “Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.” shows the reader that each year the boy would trust that the berries would stay good but deep down remembers how he had been betrayed the previous times and prepares himself for yet another disappointment. These disappointments are part of a life learning stage for children and year after year as the berries age so do the children.

        The use of the language in this poem stimulates the senses of the readers. “its flesh was sweet,” is an example were the words allow the reader to be a part of the experiences of the children and almost taste the fresh berries. At the end “the juice was stinking too.” again makes the reader feel like they are really there and can smell the unpleasant odor of rot. Seamus Heaney adds a great deal of comparisons to this poem to intensify the situation. Comparing the juice of the blackberries to “summer’s blood” is a metaphor that makes the berries appear to be like a life source. Blood is a connotative which can convey a pessimistic or positive picture, depending on how the reader looks at it. Because of this the blood may represent the positive experience of picking and eating the berries when they are fresh or may foreshadow the negative letdown at the end when the berries become rancid. The personification in the line “a rat-grey fungus, glutting on our catch.” makes the mold seem to be like a monster that is attacking the berries for his own pleasure.

        Blackberry-picking is the memory of a man’s childhood experiences and how he learned disappointment. It also teaches us to accept the misfortunes in our life and to forgive but not forget the experiences. With the use of imagery and comparisons the reader is drawn into the life of the narrator and can feel his pain and his joy. The reader can also see the narrator’s passion with the use of specific words and vivid verses.