'Blackberry-Picking,' by Seamus Heaney, is an excellent piece about the speaker's childhood and the times he spent picking blackberries. This poem recounts a recurring memory from the speaker's youth: picking blackberries and enjoying their delicious flavor every August. One ripe blackberry wRead more
‘Blackberry-Picking,’ by Seamus Heaney, is an excellent piece about the speaker’s childhood and the times he spent picking blackberries. This poem recounts a recurring memory from the speaker’s youth: picking blackberries and enjoying their delicious flavor every August. One ripe blackberry would be present at the beginning of the week, but soon all the other berries would be ready for plucking. Blackberry picking was a brief activity, though, as the berries only lasted for about a week before becoming bad and dying. The speaker acknowledges that despite always knowing they wouldn’t, he would wish they would stay longer each year.
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Alliteration: The repetition of initial consonant sounds in neighboring words. Example: "Round hayfields, cornfields, and potato-drills" - The repetition of the "r" sound in "round," "hayfields," "cornfields," and "potato-drills." Assonance: The repetition of vowel sounds in neighboring wordsRead more
Blackberry-Picking Summary
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