blackberry picking seamus heaney analysis

Lines 10-14: These lines show how far the speaker's willing to go to fulfill his hopes and desires.So you see, both youth and lust wind around each other in this poem. We tend to think of lust as strongest in younger, livelier people. anything that he strongly desires and can't seem to get his fill of. You can fill in anything here – women, money, etc. Lines 7-8: Here the berries symbolize what the speaker lusts after.So, not a green baby, but something in the shining hours of its youth. The first purple one, though, symbolizes the berry in its prime. Ever heard someone say 'he's a little green' when they mean to say that he's young or inexperienced in something? Well, here the green berries are just like that – young, inexperienced, and new to the world. So here the fresh berry represents a first glimmer of hope. Here the speaker gets a glimpse of what's to come – more ripe and beautiful berries once those hard green ones get a little more time and warmth! He's excited and, having waited for a year (they only come out this time in the summer), his expectations are high. Lines 3-4: Hope, Expectation, and Youth.We'll get you started with some examples so you see what we mean. At one point, these fresh berries represent the speaker's lust, and at another, his bounty. They're doing some serious symbolic work here, and in fact they mean different things at different times. The fresh blackberries are the ones in the first stanza and we're going to look at them separately from the harvested, rotting berries because they mean something different in the poem. Check out our 'How to Read a Poem' section for a glossary of terms. Before you travel any further, please know that there may be some thorny academic terminology ahead. Welcome to the land of symbols, imagery, and wordplay.

Blackberry picking seamus heaney analysis