i need help with a poem there is a poem called berry picking and i just need some help analyzing it.?

Question

what i have so far is that it may be a metaphor for innocence. I wondered if anyone had anymore thoughts about it.

"berry picking"

Silently my wife walks on the still wet furze
Now darkgreen the leaves are full of metaphors
Now lit up is each tiny lamp of blueberry.
The white nails of rain have dropped and the sun is free.

And whether she bends or straightens to each bush
To find the children's laughter among the leaves
Her quiet hands seem to make the quiet summer hush--
Berries or children, patient she is with these.

I only vex and perplex her; madness, rage
Are endearing perhaps put down upon the page;
Even silence daylong and sullen can then
Enamor as restraint or classic discipline.

So I envy the berries she puts in her mouth,
The red and succulent juice that stains her lips;
I shall never taste that good to her, nor will they
Displease her with a thousand barbarous jests.

How they lie easily for her hand to take,
Part of the unoffending world that is hers;
Here beyond complexity she stands and stares
And leans her marvelous head as if for answers.

No more the easy soul my childish craft deceives
Nor the simpler one for whom yes is always yes;
No, now her voice comes to me from a far way off
Though her lips are redder than the raspberries.

thats not even the same poem but thanks

Answer 1

Analysis of Blackberry Picking poem
Throughout our lives, we desire many things to turn out the way we want them to and when something good comes around we want it to last, which unfortunately does not happen very often. In the poem “Blackberry-Picking” Seamus Heaney tells about hope and disappointment and how things never quite live up to our expectations. Heaney uses blackberry picking as a metaphor for experiences to convey his idea.
In the first half of the poem, Heaney describes the picking of berries. He clearly describes the berries appearance with many adjectives like “red”, “green”, “hard as a knot”, and “glossy purple”. He also sugge

. . .
Even though he “knew that they would not”, every year he “hoped they’d keep”. All of these thoughts in the first half of the poem show the desire that Heaney has for the enticing fruit.


Throughout his poem, Seamus Heaney cleverly presents his idea that good things do not last by using the experience of picking berries as a metaphor to convey his message. He remembers as “you ate that first one and its flesh was sweet”, giving you reason to want more.


The structure of the poem is purposely written so that the two sections match the two stages of the poet's thought; in the first stanza he explains the enthusiasm of the collectors and why they want the berries as much as they do, because of the sensuous pleasure that it gives. sts the eagerness that the collectors have about picking the berries with words like “lust” and “hunger”, later mentioning that they “trekked and picked until the cans were full” and had picked so many that their “hands were peppered with thorn pricks”. In the second stanza, he sadly explains how quickly the enjoyment of the berries ends because of the fruit rotting and how the enjoyment of the fruit was regrettably short lived. He reveals his idea that good things do not last when he says that he “always felt like crying” because “it wasn’t fair” that “all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot”. By utilizing the poem’s structure and metaphors, his idea is clearly presented, leaving the reader entirely agreeing with the author’s idea that, to our disappointment, good things unfortunately do not last as long as we would like them to. The palatability of the tasteful fruit is quickly lost when Heaney reveals that “once off the bush…the sweet flesh would turn sour”. In the second half of the poem, Heaney regretfully tells how the alluring fruit loses it all the attraction that it previously had.

Answer 2

My opinion:
Sounds like a husband speaking of how his wife is patient with her childrens playfulness & mischieviousness, but does not tolerate her husbands foolishness.

The berries are not displeasing to her like her husband can be and he regrets the displeasure she feels towards him.

The last stanza may indicate that she has passed away and the poem is mourning her.

Don't know if this is even close, but it's what I got from reading it.
Nice poem, thanks.

Answer 3

Try analyzing each stanza. You will see the are many metaphors. The thrust of the poem is the writer feels isolated from his wife. He reveals many traits of hers that endears her to him.

Answer 4

I think it depends

Answer 5

This is bugging me as well

Answer 6

meaning is made.