Blackberry+Picking+Notes

(Sonya's Notes. Use them all you like.) (Add your own) How do you make all my gaps between paragraphs appear instead of it all running together?** // 1)  ////Is the poem really just about picking blackberries? // On the surface, yes. It is clearly about a real experience and has simple, clear sentences to set this up. “Late August, given heavy rain and sun/For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.” “We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.” But the **diction** makes it about so much more. The poem is full of **religious references and symbolism** to sins (greed, lust, gluttony, theft, murder) and consuming the flesh and blood of Christ (flesh, blood, wine, thorns). “You ate that first one and it’s flesh was sweet/Like thickened wine **(simile)**: summer’s blood was in it/Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for/Picking.’ This is much more than just berries, it is about how humans desire to take more than is theirs, and they let that want fester until feelings become murderous. When the berries are eaten, the blood and flesh of Christ are taken, but as the berries rot and decay, the humans become more sinful and the act of eating the berries becomes murderous, as is shown by the last line of the stanza about the act of picking. “Our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s.” Bluebeard was a pirate who killed his wives. Likens picking to murder. “Stains upon the tongue” – a moral stain of sin. “You ate that first one and it’s flesh was sweet” – cannibalism, ritualistic. Indicates that the first taste brought about a greater desire. “Big dark blobs burned like a plate of eyes.” The blackberries have an accusing righteous anger; they are being wronged through the act of removing them from their bushes and then being consumed. “Red ones inked up” berries ripening. Pickers becoming more blood-hungry. Ink links to clots and stains. “Glossy purple clot” – **juxtaposition.** Sounds gross. **Metaphor.** Blood just waiting to be unblocked and freed. Clot = sick, strokes lead to death or severe impairment etc. There is a moral decay as the people get more obsessed with getting more blackberries; this leads to death. //Berries/humans start off ripe and pure – body of Christ is eaten but then sin occurs – lust and gluttony overcome him (**likens to Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit**) – then there is punishment of decay and death //– James Hedges
 * Seamus Heaney
 * Blackberry Picking **

//2) How does the poem contrast the ideas of expected pleasure and disappointment? // //3) Why does Heaney say that he “hoped” for something, even though he “knew” it would not happen? // “That hunger sent us out.” “We trekked and picked until the cans were full.” Their hope and expected pleasure is the motivation for picking. “Each year, I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.” This poem is about the inevitability of death and decay; that we will always be disappointed by things we cannot prevent. Berries die. Humans die. “You can’t stop the rot.” But that this inevitable fate does not, and should not, stop us enjoying ourselves, living in the moment, lusting and sinning and being ourselves in all our humanness. “Byre.” – a cow shed. **Homonym** for bire – a funeral place. Links to death and decay. There is a circular nature to life; it is a cycle. We may die but our children (and hope) live on. “Fruit fermented flesh.” Sound enhances the sense of the line. **Alliteration.** “With thorn pricks.” – **Monosyllabic.** Sounds like thorns pricking. Placement at end of stanza one could mean the children are about to get “pricked.” Their excitement and joy is about to end. //4) Is this poem from the viewpoint of a child, adult, or both? // Both. The viewpoints are interwoven. Written as an adult, Heaney is reflecting on childhood but keeps the childish tone. “I always felt like crying.” “It wasn’t fair/that all the **lovely** canfuls smelt of rot.” The ideas are too advanced to be written completely from a child’s point of view, but the tone is still there.  
 * The first stanza ** is focussed on the experience of picking itself, and the excitement and hunger that goes with it. The children expect great pleasure. The stanza is very “in the moment.”
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">The second stanza **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> speaks of the disappointment when the berries rot so quickly. It is more reflective.
 * <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">The last line **<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> **(a couplet)** connects the two, saying even though the children expect great pleasure and hope for the best, deep down they know they will be disappointed.