1999 AP English: Literature and Composition Exam
Question 1
Sample M
In the poem “Blackberry-Picking” the author, Seamus Heaney, uses several literary devices such as similes, near rhyme, imagery & diction to convey his emotions on blackberry-picking. His poem also reveals that Heaney has a greater understanding beyond that of the literal act of picking blackberries.
Heaney’s use of imagery stimulates the reader to the point of visualizing the blackberries in their own hands, “a glossy purple clot” as well as “Leaving stains on the tongue” are examples of imagery used to convey a sense of “realness” for the reader. Similes used in this poem are used to stimulate the reader’s senses. “...Sweet like thicked wine (line 5-6) and “Our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s (line 16) serve to arouse the senses & give the illusion as participating in the event.
The poet’s word choice is what sets up the great contrast between the stanzas. Words like “lust” and “that hunger” as well as “Summer’s blood” convey a Primitive force driving the actions of the children in the summer. The second stanza’s diction moves from the Primitive, “hoarded” (line 17) to a more sobering one. The Children see the fruits of their labor wasted & gone, “and this reveals a more saddening tone. “Stinking” (line 20) & “glutting” (line 19) convey a sense of anger that just like every other yr. their harvest of Blackberries has been tainted. The sweetness & beauty that they desired so was taken from them.
The Poet reveals in line 24 that he knew the fruits would rot. This is a direct statement about life, that the poet knows “they will never keep” b/c he knows that things such as rotting and death is inevitable & with that pair also is inevitable as seen in line 22 with “I always felt like crying.” This same statement also makes the reader feel sympathy for the poet.
Through the use of literary devices Heaney allows the reader not only peek at a personal experience in his life, but also what he has learned from that experience.
Sample CC
In Seamus Heaney’s poem Blackberry-Picking, the intensity of the reminiscense along with the powerful literary elements included present the reader with a blackberry-picking experience that truly transcends the physical surroundings. through form, word choice, imagery, and rhyme the author conveys what a powerful and moving experience nature can be.
Vivid imagery allows the reader to be fully drawn into the realm of blackberry picking. The author’s use of color and lush detail allow for a clear mental picture. Seamus Heaney describes the blackberries, once ripened, as “a glossy purple clot,” (line 3), or even “red, green, hard as a knot” (ln 4). Perhaps the passage of time does have an effect upon the berries, varying their colors an textures. The physical description of the eating of a blackberry is nearly sensuous, the berries themselves tasting “like thickened wine” (ln 6), or as “blood” (ln 6). The metaphoric comparison of blood to the blackberries implies a “lust” (7) for the “stains” (7) left behind. Perhaps, though, it is only a symbol of the pleasure of blackberry picking itself. The description of different containers such as “milk cans, pea tins, and jam pots” (9) serves to draw the reader further into the experience of berry picking. The poem incorporates many sensory elements such as color, sight, taste and texture, the details engulfing the reader. Seamus Heaney mentions that the berry’s “flesh was sweet” (5), and the narrator and his companion’s hands were “peppered with thorn pricks” (16) by the sticky berries which are much akin to blood. Later, once he has conveyed the pleasure of picking the berries, he tells of his later disappointment through his description of “a rat-grey fungus” (19), and “fermenting” fruit (21). The “flesh would turn sour” (21) and “smelt of rot” (23), conveying the narrator’s disappointment that the passage of time had taken the pleasure out of the blackberries, if only until “late August” (1) of “each year” (24). The lush word choice shows the reader how much pleasure the narrator takes in berry picking.
The author makes use of rhyming couplets of asort, with the last syllables of the sentence essentially rhyming. The irregularities in the rhyme only serve to draw the reader’s attention to the most important parts. In the last paragraph, “byre” (17) and “fur” (18) can be spoken to rhyme, though the next four lines are not even close to rhyming. Yet the poem’s final two lines, the final couplet, has perfect rhyme between “rot” (23) and “not” (24). This is to underscore the meaning of the poem itself. There is no pleasure without pain and disappointment, yet the rotting of the berries is only a temporary setback until the next year, the next August. The narrator himself realizes that the berries would not last, yet he still hopes they will remain year after year.
The form of this poem is mostly rhyming couplets broken into two paragraphs. The first paragraph provides the reader with an adequately lush, sensory description of the pleasure of collecting the sweet berries. The second paragraph relays to the reader the narrator’s growing sense of disappointment and misplaced hope that time would not take its toll on his “cache” (19) of blackberries, the remainder rotting because of his greed and desire to take too much, and his inability to prevent time from having its way with the berries and their “stinking” (20) juice. This and the diction made use of allow the reader to experience the pleasure (“sweet flesh” (5)), pain (“thorn pricks” (16)), hope, and disapointment of the narrator. The statement “Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not,” (24) demonstrates how much the narrator truly loved the sensation & the hope that blackberry picking permitted him, and underscores the meanings that you cannot run from time, but you can repeat what has been done in the past to reaffirm that pleasant and hopeful experience.
The author writes this poem not only to tell of blackberry picking, but to tell of the sweetness of hope in the hopeless. His colorful and powerful choices of words and structure draw the reader’s attention to his true meaning, and his feeling that although time destroys all things, people can look back in retrospect on the good times or even repeat the experience to recapture feelings that have passed.
Sample F
The blackberry picking is depicted as being fun and adventurous. The pickers couldn’t get enough or their fill so they used just about anything they could find to store the blackberries. For example, in line 8 and 9 they use milk cans, pea tins, and jam pots. You could tell they loved doing it by lines 5 and 6 and also 7 and 8, when it causes them to lust for picking. The author uses great imagery to describe the taste of the berries. For example, he uses words like stains, lust, inked up, glossy, and thickened wine. He also used the simile “its flesh was sweet like thickened wine,” which makes the reader go out and pick their own blackberries.
Sample I
In “Blackberry-Picking”, Seamus Heaney shares with the reader an important yearly event of his childhood. Not only can we picture the narrator picking berries, we can feel the emotion that accompanied this exciting time of year.
The poem begins as the berries begin to ripen and we sense that the narrator has been anxiously awaiting this occurance. “At first, just one,” we are told, emphasizing how much waiting was involved. “You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet.” The first berry of the season was one to be savoured. Its wonderful flavor left a “lust for picking.”
As the poem continues, it becomes clear that blackberry picking was not only a part of summer, it was summer. The first months were spent waiting. The end was fill with nothing but berries. They filled the narrator’s time as well as they filled his stomac. Tasting the first one, we are told, “summer’s blood was in it.” In that blackberry was what kept the summer alive. The juice circulated through the summer and we know that without it, summer would die.
At the end of the poem, we learn that the gatherd hoard of berries could not last. Despite the narrator’s continual hope that the berries could be saved, “the sweet flesh would turn sour” and “all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.”
Heaney tells us, through this poem, that the berries, an annual symbol of summer, can not last year round. Although it seems unfair, if they didn’t rot and we weren’t deprived of that “thickened wine”, we would not miss them. The anticipation and excitement would be lost. With them would go the joy of picking and the wonderful sensation of biting in to that first berry. Not only in the enjoyment of berries, but all things are appreciated more when we have been deprived of them. This poem is a clear reminder that, “success is counted sweetest by those who n’er succeed!”
Sample U
Many times a poet describes a literal situation while implying a deeper meaning. In Seamus Heaney’s “Blackberry –Picking,” diction and imagery, figurative language, and form convey a literal description of picking blackberries as well as a deeper understanding of the whole experience.
Heaney uses descriptive diction to create images of the blackberry-picking experience. The “glossy purple clot,” in the midst of “others, red, green, hard...,” embodies the excitement of the ritual experience. The speaker enjoys literally picking the blackberries and tasting “that first one,” but it is also a reflection upon childhood innocence and past memories. The images the author creates through words such as “inked up,” “hunger,” and “briars scratched and wet grass bleached” reveal the aspects of blackberry-picking that remain imprinted in the speaker’s mind. The “sweet” flesh, “stains upon the tounge,” and “lust” for gathering the sacred berries all create vivid images of how the blackberries literally and figuratively transform the speaker. The speaker “trekked” for and “hoarded” the berries just as he returns to the scene in the memory he holds so dear. The berries “stain” his tounge just as they stain his memory.
Figurative language, such as similes and metaphors, contributes to both the literal and deeper descriptions of the blackberry-picking ritual. The berries embody the summer experience of the speaker just as they have “summer’s blood” in them. They are personified through this description, bringing them to life with the blood just as the speaker brought to life each year as blackberry-picking season arrives. The berries are “sweet like thickened wine” just as the enjoyment and memory of the experience is sweet to the speaker. The berries on top of the cans are “big dark blobs” that burn “like a plate of eyes. The overall meaning of the experience is burned into the mind of the speaker and he looks back in positive reflection.
Finally, the form of the poem helps Heaney convey a literal description of blackberry-picking as well as a deeper understanding of the whole experience. The point of view of the poem is first person, allowing the reader introspect into the mind and memory of the speaker and his experiences. The poem’s structure is two stanzas, the first discussing the actual picking and the second discussing the consequences and reactions following. In the second stanza, the blackberries go sour just as the experience soured as the summer ended each year. The speaker enjoyed the experience and the blackberries immensely. Therefore, he hoped each year that the blackberries wouldn’t rot and the summer wouldn’t end. The lines also reflect the speaker’s wish to hold onto his innocence within the confines of blackberry-picking season. He realizes, however, that, just as the blackberries spoil, all good things must come to an end and he must move on with his life.
Sample C
As summer breathes its hot breath onto the young, so does the mysticism and haunting call of berry picking. Seamus Heaney vividly portrays this summer pasttime in his poem “Blackberry-Picking”. By integrating short, choppy sentences with flowery language and images, the rush of picking berries and the naive greed reminds the reader of one’s summer excursions.
“At first, just one, a glossy purple clot/among others, red, green, hard as a knot.” (3-4) Seamus creates the speaker to be of an adult looking back on past fun. The short, choppy sentences are examples of a child’s detatched, visually oriented lifestyle. The diction and voice as quoted describe the rush of berry harvesting and the accompanying glory of the first sampling of the season. The rushed rhyth of the piece denotes the greed of youth during the passionate summer heat. The speaker describes summer as a time of change over all who answer the “Heavy rain and sun” and retreat to the “Hayfields, cornfields and potato drills” for an experience long waited for and slow in coming.
“That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot./Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.” (23-24) The use of a lacadaisical rhyme scheme aids in describing the naivette of youth and the perpetual misunderstanding that some things will live forever. Every two lines impressively end with the same consonant, but as to whether the two words rhyme is simply random, just as a child’s mind tends to opperate As with a child, outcomes and beginnings are never aknowledged together. The speaker (whether child or adult) builds this vision of blackberries to an almost mystical, magical state, the fruits of heaven. But as the summer draws on, both imaginings and realities meet—for the berries must soon go bad. As the youth mature, so does the interperatation that “all good things must come to an end.” And so, greed has its consequences. To gorge on both berries and life ultimately leads to the building of this wanton taste for next year’s harvest.
Sample H
In the poem “Blackberry-Picking”; the poet provides the reader with a vivid description of his experience of picking berries. He describes literaly picking berries through the use of imagery. Not only does poet tell of the physical characteristics of the experience, but also he shares the deeper emotional elements of it by symbolism.