Blackberry-Picking Blackberry-Picking is a poem written by the great Seamus Heaney. The poem creates a contrast between Heaney’s perceptions of the world as a child to his new perception as he begins to grow up. Once again, similar to his other poems, he addresses the theme of childhood memories. The poem surrounds the constant use of different imageries and an irregular rhyme scheme to describe the feelings the writer endures while picking blackberries. The poem includes two stanzas that were filled with opposite contents, the first stanza being twice as long as the second.
Here, however, the gentle internal rhymes, ‘tree’, ‘rosemary’, ‘thing’, ‘clings’, suggest a conversational, fond reminiscence. The word inversion that puts ‘clings’ before the negating ‘not’ encourages the reader to hold both positive and negative meanings in the mind momentarily. We are therefore given the sense of ‘clinging’ – in the sense that the speaker takes an interest in the plant for its names, and ‘clinging not’, in that they seem incongruous with the plant itself. A sense that the plant is uncomfortable with its names is given by the words ‘decorate’ and ‘perplex’, which stick out prominently as the only polysyllabic words in the last four lines. We note that it is not the beholder but the plant itself that is ‘perplex[ed]‘ by the names.
The struggle they face at Devon in the summer of 1942 force them to grow up and lose the innocence of their youth. Gene states “I couldn’t help envying him that a little, which was perfectly normal.” (Knowles 25) Each turn of the page takes you deeper into Gene’s world from when he bent the branch while Finny was jumping off the tree into the river, to the fall of Finny down the marble steps. Each of these tragic events limits the athletic ability of Finny. The story draws you in like a kid to a candy bar and you feel Gene’s agony as he realizes his jealousy of Finny is unfounded. The author shows Gene’s growth throughout the novel as he tells Finny that he is the one who shook the branch and pushed him out of the tree and caused his leg to break.
The symbolism of the raisin in line 3, drying in the sun, symbolizes the power of a dream, like the sweetness and flavor in a grape, condensing and becoming more concentrated. The description of the image of a sweet that will “crust and sugar over” (7-8), while perhaps not desirable, is not very negative. This imagery is contrasted by the definitively negative images of runny, festering sores (4, 5) and rotting, stinking meat (6), which are sandwiched between the two less disturbing similes. Hughes’s use of word play throughout, such as the alliteration in lines 1-2 and 7, “dream deferred? / Does it dry” (1-2) and “syrupy sweet” (7), and his use of the repetition of the question “Does it…” in lines 2 and 6 as well as his irregular rhyme scheme and rhythmic quality cause the reader to become frustrated, as they are driven forward only to fall into a pattern almost recognizable.
The berries are described with sensuous imagery so that the reader can imagine the taste, smell, touch and sight of the blackberries. Simple blackberries are described as addictive wine “Like thickened wine: summer’s blood was in it”. In complete contrast to this the fungus on the blackberries is later described as rat-like which creates a disgusting image in one’s mind. The same blackberries that the persona lures us into and makes us feel how great it is, is presented in such a manner that it becomes revolting. 3.
On the last few pages of the book, it is said that “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter—tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms father…” By this we know for sure that Gatsby had a meaning behind everything he had tried so hard to achieve, and that Fitzgerald used the green light to symbolize everything Gatsby strived for. In the end, he did not gain the acceptance he wanted, but did stand out. Gatsby showed aspiration, and determination for Daisy until it lead him to death. There were many themes included in The Great Gatsby, but the symbolism of the Green Light particularly pertained to Gatsby himself.
This is highlighted with "shut", "bleached" and "dark-clothed". The cleaver use of "shut shops", "sun blinds", "sovereigns", "kings and queens" compounds a critisasation of authority, Larkin does this through sibilance. Larkin then presents the loss in the next stanza with the repetition of the theme of innocence this is highlighted with the quotation "dresses", "never such innocence", "little" and "never such innocence again". This created a sense of destruction and how the war has taken the innocence of so many young people. Also the use off an oxymoron "restless silence" foreshadows the tragedy that is to come.
The Irrecoverable Good Old Days: An analysis of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, strongly demonstrates that precaution be taken for reliving the past. Gatsby’s death illustrates how delicate life is when individuals are not aware of there own present surroundings. An important idea expressed in the novel is that human’s awful tendency to use deception on ones own out of reach desires, so they can believe that there past obsession will one day be true, will perpetually lead to the utter destruction and isolation of oneself. Daisy’s love life with Gatsby in the past is brought up multiple times, revealing the obsession Gatsby has of Daisy, notably his past depiction of her through the
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not. Writing English: Group Work “Blackberry-Picking” Similes: * “hard as a knot” * “sweet/Like thickened wine” * “Like a plate of eyes” * *“I felt like crying” (not one object being compared to another, but one state of being compared to another state of being) * “Our palms were sticky as Bluebeard’s” Implied metaphors: * “summer’s blood was in it” * “sweet flesh” * “that hunger” – not for eating the blackberries (i.e. not a literal “hunger”) but for picking the blackberries (i.e. the desire for the blackberring, which implies a metaphor/comparison: hunger is like desire) * “wet grass bleached our boots” (the wet grass hasn’t actually
Moreover, he emphasizes the last two lines with “But they were fucked up in their turn by fools in old-style hats and coats “, to stress the significance of parental mistakes. He continues with another false generalization “Man hands on misery to man. “, which can again be understood as an apocalyptic view of the future. However, the next line, “It deepens like