"Blackberry-picking" by Seamus Heaney
Blackberry-picking is a poem by Seamus Heaney, in which he describes an incident from his childhood. The poem appeals to the five senses and uses various poetic techniques to paint a memorable picture in our minds.
Heaney describes blackberry-picking as a child with his family. He vividly describes the blackberries and how they tasted, then he describes how he went out picking then and what the blackberries looked like, he then describe what they did to the berries after picking and how disappointed he was when they did not keep and went rotten.
Usage of the five senses is very important to the success of treating a picture in our minds about what the experiences of blackberry-picking must have been like for Heaney. He writes about the sight of the blackberries, the fell of then, how they tasted, the sound of the blackberries when they hit the bottom of the cans and finally the smell of rot when the blackberries go rotten.
Seamus Heaney (b. 1939), Irish writer (Crop)
Seamus i Marie Heaney, Wieczór Irlandzki, koÅ›ciÃ...
English: Seamus Heaney Centre, Queen's University,...These uses of the senses are used very well, so well in fact that you can imagine being there with Heaney. There are many uses of senses in the poem, for example he uses sight more than smell and touch. A few examples of the uses are when Heaney use sight at the start of the poem describing the blackberries as 'a glossy purple clot'. This describes the colour of the berry and is referring it to a blood clot which is quite gleefully gory and imaginative and therefore childlike. He also described the shape of the blackberries like a clot, and possible the fell of it too, rather soft and juicy.
Heaney also describes the berries taste in these lines, "You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet, like...