Lust's All Consuming Nature

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Lust’s All Consuming Nature In Seamus Heaney’s “Black-berry Picking”, Heaney writes of the ever-increasing nature of lust and its never fulfilling desire, taking over one’s being. Throughout the poem, Heaney uses diction, allusion and symbolism to convey his overall message of lust’s all-consuming desire. It seems that the speaker in Heaney’s “Blackberry-Picking” is talking about an innocent childhood pastime when in actuality, the speaker portrays the deep-rooted human nature of lust and desire through poetic devices such as diction, allusion and symbolism, while also expressing lust’s unfulfilling nature. “Blackberry-Picking” is a poem where the speaker talks about her excitement about getting ready to go blackberry picking. This seemingly innocent childhood pastime is tainted by dark desire and lust for these blackberries. Heaney symbolizes these blackberries as the object of human desire, whatever it may be. The speaker talks about her excitement to pick these berries, describing the desire humans have for these objects of affection. The poem makes a gradual decline into lust, showing its ultimate control over the speaker and then ending with the berries being unsatisfying and inedible, leaving the speaker wanting more. Through diction, Heaney is successfully able to convey to the reader how far this desire goes. The speaker talks about the “flesh” of the berries and how they had a “lust for picking”. The use of diction here gives the aura of something about this scene is not as innocent as one would think with just a quick read through. Through this subtle tool, the speaker is able to see the unraveling sense of desire that is consuming the speaker. Speaker continues to state that they “trekked and picked” to their destination, all the while being “scratched” on the way. Again Heaney utilizes diction to subtly state his overlying message without his outright
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