Blackberry+Eating

Home **Table of Contents** ** 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 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 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.
 * Galway Kinnell **[[image:bigstockphoto_blackberries_1995499.jpg.jpeg width="320" height="211" align="left"]]

Analysis- Galway Kinnell shows a deep attraction for blackberries in Blackberry Eating, and his attraction to the blackberries is expressed by the words that Kinnel uses to describe them. Kinnell uses words like "love, ripest, and splurge" to show his interest for blackberries. He is attracted mostly by the taste of the blackberries. In the line " lifting the stalks to my mount, the ripest berries", he shows his love for the taste of fruit. Kinnell also describes physical interactions with the blackberries. When he says "which i squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well" Kinnell is talking about the physical aspect of life. He is also describing his enjoyment of touching and feeling the blackberries. Galway Kinnell uses devices very well in Blackberry Eating. Personification is used in the line "a penalty they earn for knowing the black art". Also, alliteration is used in the lines "blackberries for breakfast, black blackberries, very prickly a penalty". These alliterations are used for both style and emphasis. In the poem Blackberry Eating Galway wants to show his knowledge of the richness of language and he shows that through his attratction to eating blackberries in September.