Quentin Jensen Jensen 1
Bennett
DC Eng 3 hr 7
3/10/15

“Blackberrying” is a poem that on the surface, is just a walk through a trail of blackberries to the ocean. However, this poem’s main concept is much darker. The narrator is someone who is contemplating life and death, comparing those concepts to her walk through a trail of blackberries. The narrator starts the poem describing the emptiness of wherever she is, besides blackberries, emphasizing ‘nothing’ by repetition.This might imply her loneliness. She then describes the alley being in hooks, and most importantly, states there’s a sea somewhere at the end. This can be taken as that the narrator acknowledges that death is eminent, but she doesn’t know where and doesn’t seem to care much. She then describes the blackberries, and how perfect the blackberries are. The juice from the blackberries is presented as blood, and when some gets on her fingers, she says “I never asked for such a blood sisterhood; they must love me.” She also personifies the blackberries further, saying that they accommodate themselves to her milkbottle. This can be taken as her loneliness being so great, that she personifies objects that she loves, like the blackberries. I think that this first stanza describes her childhood and growing up lonely, but still unaware of death. The tone changes incredibly in the second stanza, as she describes a chough of ravens flying overhead, using cacophonous words to create a bad connotation immediately.
They are also “in” black, suggesting wearing black, as if going to a funeral. The burning papers are personified, and the word ‘protesting’ is repeated, which gives a somewhat gloomy atmosphere. The sea is presented again, but the narrator still doesn’t worry about it. The tone changes again, although it has dark undertones. The meadow is shown as glowing, which can be interpreted as a heavenly sort of light. The narrator does a weird job of painting a grotesque scene in a sort of positive light, describing a bush seemingly entirely covered in flies, feeding off the blackberries. These flies give an implication of death, but they are also described as believing in heaven. This gives off the idea that even though there is death, they are okay with it. This can be transferred to how the narrator feels about death. She closes the stanza saying that the