Blackberry Picking

The poem is a childhood memory recounted by an adult speaker; the adult, in the present, recalls the child of his past. This creates an immediate tonal complexity as the maturity of adult consciousness gives a sophisticated description of not only childhood naiveté but also the loss of that naiveté. Because the adult speaker details his childhood ingenuity, the voice presents both melancholy and irony. It is the voice of experience documenting inexperience.

The poem, as a recollection, opens with its distinctive setting. The speaker establishes the time of year—late summer turning to autumn—and the tempestuous weather. An artful enjambment takes this description into the second line, which reveals the true opening of the story: the beginning of blackberry-picking season. The line “At first, just one” (Line 3) works like the opening notes of a symphony; here the reader sees the season beginning to unfold.

Heaney uses descriptive language and imagery, detailing the colors and textures of the early unripe berries. This level of detail creates a strong juxtaposition with the poem’s first turning point: the very first ripe blackberry.