Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen. At first, just one, a glossy purple clot 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 Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for Picking. Then red ones inked up and that hunger Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached out boots. Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills We trekked and picked until the cans were full Until the tinkling bottom had been covered With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's. We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre. But when the bath was filled we found a fur, 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. 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. |
PAraphraseHeaney uses metaphors throughout the poem revolving around blackberries to show how we treat so many things in life. The blackberries show that we become focused on getting too much instead of enjoying what is present--we are never content. When we continue to search and search, we don't realize what we have until it is too late and it is gone or "rotted." As Heaney uses the blackberries to show how we are focused on getting more when we have enough, he also uses them to show the loss of innocence. In the beginning of the poem, "the blackberries would ripen," just as humans do when they are born--they're innocent at the time. However, as time goes on, the innocence is lost due to handling and seeing what the real world is like.
ThemeThe theme of the poem is the loss of innocence due to the awareness and interaction with the real world. He uses supporting phrases such as "...that first one and its flesh was sweet," to show the innocence at the beginning of life and other phrases such as, "...the sweet flesh would turn sour," to show the loss of innocence as they grew up. The "blackberries" in this poem are actually humans. The supporting words are highlighted in this color.
Lyric or narrative?This poem is a narrative. The speaker or narrator of the poem is telling a story about when the past when he would go blackberry picking. He is looking back on times and reflecting on them.
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