Thursday, April 28, 2011
Blackberry Eating by Galway Kinnell
Reading "Blackberry Eating", I noticed a certain amount of imagery that almost requires the reader to involve themselves into the text. Galway Kinnell is simply explaining how much he loves everything about blackberries. However, it is not just blackberries he is in love with. He also loves words. The blackberries he loves so much, symbolizes how he feels words are so unique and full of taste. "..the ripest berries fall almost unbidden to my tongue, as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words like strengths or squinched" (7-10). Kinnell compares the ripest berries to strange words like strengths or squinched. A word as funny as squinched is so hard for Kinnell to explain he has to compare it to something relate-able, like a truly ripe blackberry. "I love to go out in late September among the fat, overripe, icy black blackberries" (1-2). Just the way he describes these fruits is enough to depict a vivid image inside the reader's mind. However, he also evokes the sense of touch and taste when Kinnell "squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well in the silent, startled, icy black language" (12-13). He describes the blackberries so well, it's like the reader can almost taste and feel the squished blackberries inside their mouths. I believe Kinnell cannot express how greatly he feels about words, so he gives an extraordinary description of a simple activity to help us realize his vision.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It was very vivid in my mind as I read the poem. I appreciated how he was able to make the intangible (words) tangible (blackberries)
ReplyDeleteI really like your explanation of this poem... mine was rather, lazy in comparison. But one thing I think of this short poem is that it is layered like the painting of an artists. These layers are different themes the author implanted. Such as nature, morality, and even mortality. The relationship with nature, the morality of how he and nature treat each other, and the mortality of the little blackberries themselves. It also implies a continuous cycle of nature as he always goes back in September to taste them. But I really like how you link the fruit and the words.
ReplyDeleteWhile sum up I didn't understand this poem so I passed on writing on it but after reading what you said help clear up my view on this poem.
ReplyDeleteYes, though, of course, as you note, it's not just about Blackberries---as you imply in your final comment, while the poem vividly recreates the experience of eating blackberries, it is exactly that--a recreation, which implies a lot about how language works, and writing and reading poetry,as an act of aesthetic consumption. Many important images to explore, here--the clusters, the time of year, all very suggestive...See Florina's blog and my comments, as well as blogs from previous classes.
ReplyDelete