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Paper Topic:

poem analysis on Galway kinnel`s poem `blackberry eating`

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Blackberry Eating

The poem "Blackberry Eating " by Galway Kinnell is a short but effective example of how the use of the elements of poetry can evoke emotional reaction and the corresponding emotional experience in people

The poem starts out with a matter-of-factly account or story telling of a late September trip or errand to pick up "fat , overripe , icy , black blackberries to ear blackberries for breakfast . While the first three lines directly expresses , herein , the author still makes use of stressed imagery . The color

"black , an apparent redundancy , is used to precede "blackberry " to produce or connote the image of the darkness or deepness of the fruit color , on top of the other qualities of fatness or big size and possible coldness and juicy stage of ripeness

The stalks very prickly , a penalty they earn for knowing the black art

of blackberry-making

These next two and a half lines jumps into or introduces the level of figurative language . What initially seems a either an implied mystery or a misguided use of the pronoun "they " in referring to that entity knowledgeable on "the black art " is in fact metaphorical language . The prickly stalks obviously are not persons who practice the supposedly dark or secret art of blackberry-making . What the "penalty " element in the metaphor perhaps suggests is that the practitioner of the art earns a disadvantage , or a price to pay , when he or she holds the stalks to pick up the blackberries

These next words prompt the reader to think what the author is trying to tell "and as I stand among them lifting the stalks to my mouth , the ripest berries fall almost unbidden to my tongue

But the next line provides the unequivocal clue "as words sometimes do . Herein , it is revealed that the berries are compared to words implying that blackberry-making is likened to making a craft or something with words . At this point , the poem becomes clear , as metaphor is clearly replaced with the simile tool of the conjunction "as

What makes this apparently simple , down-to-earth poem particularly appealing to read and listen to is the equally effective use of sound devices . A sort of metaphorical onomatopoeia is made use of in the next lines "Certain peculiar words like strengths or squinched , many-lettered one-syllabled lumps , which I squeeze , squinch open , and splurge well in the silent , startled , icy , black language . As one reads or listens to these words of simile between creating prose and poetry or oration , it is as if one can almost hear the process of chewing and eating blackberries

In Blackberry Eating , rhythm , consonance or the repeated consonant sounds anywhere and alliteration or repeated initial consonants are obviously present , what with the multiple use of black by itself or as prefix : black blackberries , blackberries , blackberry-making "S " is also alliterated several times with the words strengths , squeeze , splurge silent , startled and the present and past forms of squinch "I love to go out in late September among...
