Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heany

657 Words3 Pages
It is human nature to want to hold on to pleasure even though it is certain that anything good in life in transitory. Even simply in the act of Blackberry-Picking can we find ourselves holding onto something that will perpetually never change. Behind the literal act of picking black berries, there is a much more figurative and deeper meaning imbedded in the poem, by Seamus Heaney, that proposes questions about life. “Summers blood was in it, leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for picking” Blood usually represents the end or death of something and by staining the tongue, the berries were leaving a mark that would represent the end of a season. This only led to the pickers infatuation to pick more. In a deeper sense, the desire that one has when anything that brings happiness, comes to an end, becomes inherently stronger at the point of its death. “I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair that all the lovely capfuls smelt of rot. Each year i hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.” Memories bring you back to moments of exuberance, to certain feelings that made you feel different types of emotions. For example, picking the blackberries gave a feeling of lust and hunger for more. “We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.” By hoarding the berries there is a clear attempt in trying to keep not only the literal berries alive, but the memory as well. In doing so, a feeling of safety and security usually comes alongside it, satisfying every persons desire to keep things the way that they are. Holding on to things in our life is something that we are very good at. Its hard for us to let things go that bring us joy, even if we are cognizant of the underlying fact that almost all things in life are momentary. Life has its small and quirky ways of teaching us how to be patient, to be hopeful, but not too hopeful, because everything could change in an instant. Which leads

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