Delicious Blackberries

We didn't read this poem in class, and it wasn't assigned, but I really enjoyed Galway Kinnell's "Blackberry Eating", which was in the reader:

Blackberry Eating

I Love to go out in late September
among the fat overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
[5] they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
[10] like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry-eating in late September.

What I really enjoyed about this poem was the constant imagery, and the diction choice that really took the reader into the experience of being out there in the blackberry bush, and fully into the experience of eating those delicious, juicy blackberries.

Some descriptive words that get the imagery rolling in the beginning of the poem are words like 'fat', 'overripe', and 'icy' in line 2. All these words enhance the image of the blackberry and make the fruit seem very appealing and enticing. But then we are told that the berries are prickly, which makes them seem like a forbidden fruit that one is rewarded for achieving. So the first 6 lines set up the berries so that the reader is yearning for them, but at the same time knows they do not come easily, which enhances the want for them. Then, as she tries to eat them, she remarks "the ripest berries fall almost unbidden to my tongue". I was impressed with the way that the word 'unbidden' anthropomorphizes the berries as unwelcome guests that seem to careless fall onto her tongue. Again, the fresh blackberries falling onto her tongue produces sweet, succulent imagery.

Then she compares the berries falling onto her tongue to words falling into her mouth, with the same grace and spontaneity. On line 11 she called them one-syllabled lumps, which again helps the reader to visual the berries in anticipation and keeps the literature metaphor going. Finally, on line 12 we are given the climax! "which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well". And it has come after so much buildup that you can almost taste the juices of the blackberries spurting into your mouth. After the climax, it is almost as if we are brought back to reality, as will happen when someone becomes transfixed on someone or something for a period of time. The last two lines draw away from the scene a bit, and reflect the poem as a whole, "in the silent, startled, icy, black language of blackberry-eating in late September". She reflects on the event as a whole, and brings back the context of late September, as if becoming once again aware of of the time period, away from an experience that was otherwisely timeless.