Blackberry Picking Heaney example essay topic

Referring to 'Blackberry Picking' and 'Death of a Naturalist', Discuss Heaney's portrayal of the natural world and his relationship to it Heaney uses the natural world and his relationship with it in order to express how as a result of age his views on the natural world have changed. Initially, Heaney was positive and hopeful regarding the world around him 'Best of all'. Through knowledge, teaching and education this judgement has been clouded leaving him to see the world as disappointing and threatening, 'I sickened'. Heaney is able to articulate this changing of voice through the use of 2 separate stanzas, diction, imagery and differences in sound throughout both 'Blackberry Picking' and 'Death of a Naturalist'. The poem 'Death of a Naturalist' describes vividly a childhood experience of a young boy who finds great excitement in 'the warm thick slobber of frogspawn that grew like clotted water in the shade of the banks'. However, a change occurs within the boy due to seeing the frogs 'one hot day' in a state which 'sickened' him.

Having seen the once 'nimble' frogs acting 'poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting' he is physically repulsed by their attitude. This reflects how through education, 'Miss Walls would tell us', Heaney has altered from being innocently wondering to being appalled. Heaney uses this incident to show how as an adult, he is surprised by his childhood naivety which he patronizes in the language 'mammy frog'. In 'Blackberry Picking' Heaney uses the childhood tradition of picking blackberries as a metaphor to express his adult view on how naively hopeful he was as a child. Heaney uses lavish description in order to create the 'lust for picking'.

By juxtaposing this with his negative view 'lovely canfuls smelt of rot' he heightens the impact of his condescending adult perspective of how things never live up to our expectations. Heaney uses the poem as a metaphor to explain that even as an adult that a recurring delusion, where there is a perpetual consciousness that life, love and youth do not 'keep' but the temptation for another try is always succumbed to. In both poems Heaney uses titles which are ironic in regard to his feelings to the poem. By a 'Naturalist' one would normally mean someone with expert scientific knowledge of living ecology, for example David Attenborough. As a na " ive child Heaney was beginning to understand nature from observation but a true naturalist would not be disgusted by the 'great slime kings'. In 'Blackberry Picking' Heaney uses a very directly relational title in childish language which contrasts to his negative view of the fruit 'fermenting' at the end of the poem.

Heaney uses titles to show how ironic nature can be in filling one with joy at first 'flesh was sweet like thickened wine' but how this pleasure never lasts, 'It wasn't fair'. The use of 2 separate stanzas by Heaney corresponds with the change in the children in both poems. By using this very clear divide, Heaney is able to make a greater impact in showing his childhood perspective in the first verse is different to his reflective adult perspective which seeps into both poems in the second verse 'I always felt'. In 'Death of a Naturalist' in the first verse Heaney emphasises decay and putrefaction 'festered in the heat' but unlike the second verse these are balanced by images suggesting the profusion of life 'mammy frog'.

Heaney uses this in death of a naturalist to show how as a result of the 'hot day' he no longer has a receptive innocence of new life. The sense of imagery in both poems enables Heaney to show the power of nature over man. The children in the poem 'Blackberry Picking' are an image of unrestrained desire. They succumb to the 'lust for picking' easily, savoring the sweet taste of the first berry, but hoarding the rest in numbers they cannot possibly consume.

Heaney uses the children to represent humanity in the poem, in their envy of that which is 'glutting on our cache' and their sense of injustice, 'It isn't fair', that what they have so greatly desired and gained is snatched from them by the swift processes of time. The imagery of the blackberries and their perfection in being 'glossy' and having 'summer's blood' enables Heaney to show how despite their beauty one cannot control nature. The image of 'Blackbeard' is also shocking as Heaney uses this to show how this childhood joy is dangerous similar to the power of nature. Blackbeard murdered many of his wives during his time as a dangerous pirate.

In 'Death of a Naturalist', the strong squalid imagery 'their loose necks pulsed like sails' enables Heaney to show how shocking the incident that occurred affected him. The use of horrific imagery all the way through of 'punishing', 'gargled' and 'slobber's hows how despite an innocent child's adoration 'best of all' Heaney in hindsight is unable to describe the incident with adjectives of joy. Throughout both poems the sense of a strong diction is used to create a childlike voice to both poems. The child's natural speaking voice is achieved in 'best of all' and 'It wasn't fair'.

The child tone is reinforced in the structure of 'Death of a Naturalist' being conversational in rhythm but by having convoluted sentences the poem has a formal prose structure which reflects the view that a child possesses that a poem must be structured to become a poem. This is reflected in the use of poetic devices such as alliteration 'flax- dam festered' and onomatopoeia 'gargled' which children use heavily in speech Heaney uses the language in 'Blackberry Picking' to establish the tone of the poem. The words are densely packed and peppered liberally with verbs and adjectives that almost intentionally sound too lavish, 'glossy purple clot'. The poem fills the mouth akin to the blackberries.

However, the poet is careful to balance the copiously sonorous phrases with words that more than hint at a darker side to the bounty of blackberries 'inked' and 'clot'. Heaney makes scant use of any pronoun in the first part of the poem 'Blackberry Picking'. There is a reference to 'you' used in an impersonal, educational manner, 'you ate the first one' and a reference to 'we' and 'our'. It is, however, the blackberries that are allowed to dominate this part of the poem. The second part allows the speaker and his unnamed companions to intrude upon the opulent nature of the blackberries. However, all their emotions are involved in the 'lovely canfuls'.

This use of lack of pronouns reinforces the idea of a lack of control Heaney feels one has over nature and how this has resulted in him feeling unsettled and disappointed in the lack of control one has in life. The language in 'Death of a Naturalist' is menacing and almost disturbing in its use of such strong imagery and choice of harsh cons tenants such as the over use of the letter 't', 'spotted butterflies. Throughout both 'Death of a Naturalist' and 'Blackberry Picking' the natural world is used merely as a metaphor in order to show his adult perspective of nostalgia that through the commanded process of learning and growing up one has lost their innocence in enjoying the pleasures of the natural world. Heaney shows his anger of how even the natural world is not protected from the dangers of age.