The use of personification helps give an image along with a clear connection. Another device used by Heaney is allusion. The allusion seen in the poem is “our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s”. The connection between this poem and Bluebeard is that the narrator of the poem feels guilty for taking all of the blackberries. One top of that, the blackberries got spoiled, where “sweet flesh would turn sour”, which is the change for worse.
The most prevalent symbol in "The End of Something" is the destroyed lumber mill, which represents Nick and Marjorie's soon-to-be destroyed relationship. As they row past the mill, Marjorie remarks that it reminds her of a castle. Nick says nothing to this. Hemingway feels it unnecessary to explain Marjorie's
In both poems life without war or before war is resented as unfulfilled and not glorious. In An Irish Airman Foresees His Death he uses the last line of the poem to compare his life before, during and after, ‘ A waste of breath the years behind In balance with this life, this death’. The use of chiasmus creates a crossing structure at the end of the poem. It creates a balancing of the claims of the future with the past in his mind and neither seems worthwhile what was in-between; serving Britain in world war one. Correspondingly in the Volunteer Asquith uses language to present the power and fulfilment of joining the war by saying that life before was ‘Half his life’’.
The speaker uses the illusion of Bluebeard to represent that the speaker took every blackberry in sight. The second stanza presents a much more depressed mood to the poem. The blackberries begin to go bad and the magic of the season begins to fade. In the first line of the second stanza, “We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre”, the word hoarded shows the first attempt to hold on to what he knows will not stay (17). The speaker comes to fact that the berries’ freshness does not last forever.
It represents the burden of the past on the present and Heaney’s subsequent frustration as he ponders on how ‘to conquer [the] weight’ this aspect of Ireland. Montague expresses his frustration at the “lost tradition” of the old Irish culture. He is frustrated by the way that modern society neglects its heritage despite the “shards” of history surrounding it in the form of the landscape and the language. He reflects upon his own experience of growing up in Ireland and compares it with ancient Irish history. Both poets use the Irish past as a stimulus for their poems.
They are deprived of learning the ‘intricate’ and colourful patterns that have shaped their lives, and thus, have lost their heritage. The poet uses a farmhouse as the setting, and through the references to the farmhouse, effectively illustrates the massive change that has taken place over the centuries. Our lost touch with the past is the prominent theme expressed in the poem. Both the theme and dark imagery used throughout, help to set the depressing tone and emphasize how Buck is deeply disturbed by the changes. Furthermore, Buck directly refers to us throughout the poem by using words such as ‘our’ and ‘we’, expressing his view that we all have a role, and that we are all responsible for our lost heritage.
‘BLACKBERRY-PICKING’, by Seamus Heaney, portrays of people’s in ability to enjoy something until it is gone and that it only becomes important to them when they can’t have it. It also portrays that things do not last forever. The fact that the poet tributes this this to poem ‘PHILIP HOBSBAUM’ and “we” and “our” is mentioned in the poem , implies to the reader that he is dead and was most likely his blackberry picking companion. The fact that it is summer in “Late August”, it gives the reader the idea that this is in the northern hemisphere. It can be said that the poet is writing as an adult and then implies that the poet is nostalgically looking back on fond memories of his childhood and his experiences of blackberry picking.
English Essay To what extent is the future doomed in Eliot’s poetry? T.S Eliot’s poems “The Waste Land”, “Hollow Men”, and “The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock” explore the sense of doom and failure that existed in the desolate perspective of life after World War I. Eliot believed that modern society lacked a vital sense of community and a spiritual centre. The poem, “The Waste Land” presents a series of conversations or scenes that lead through the wasteland to a moment of hope, the expectation of rain, at the end. The poem expresses the disillusionment of the post war years, the anguish and barrenness of modern life and the isolation of the individual. It deals with the decline of civilisation and the impossibility of recovering meaning in life.
In stanza one, Heaney explores an optimistic and child-like view to life. He used desperate word choice that suggests a lust and a need for berries. With his phrase ‘glossy purple clot’ the poet describes the first blackberry that has ripened and has stood out from others; along with the contrast that describes the others as still being 'hard as a knot'. Heaney associates the taste of the first ripe berry to the sweetness of ‘thickened wine’ and he uses a metaphor to express a desire for more. An example of this is Heaney’s quote, 'lust for picking' which suggests a strong yearning for the berries.
No one hears his cries for help or recognizes his struggle. This poem explores the idea of isolation by being misunderstood by the people around you. The poet deepens the reader’s appreciation of the theme by employing imagery, contrast and an unclear tone. The poems' overall theme is that the dead man was lost his entire life. He was never waving to the people that passed in and out of his life, but crying for help all along.