Blackberry Eating Explication

In the poem Blackberry Eating, Kinnell uses certain sounds to capture the sense of eating blackberries. The poem begins and ends with late September because it shows the cycle of blackberry-eating, which is a habitual event that he looks forward to every year. He uses phonetic intensives when he describes the stalks as "prickly" and a "penalty". These words are associated with the ideas of pricking your finger. Also, they are cacophonous because they have the harsh sound of a hard consonant alliteration, which reinforces the harsh feeling of pain when your hand is pierced by a thorn. The words "strengths" and "squinched" are a comparison for the blackberries. They are "many-lettered" because the berries are ripe and bursting with juice. The "one syllable lumps" represent each section that makes up the whole blackberry. Additionally, these two words bring to mind the sound of eating the berries when the juice squirts into your mouth. He further use of alliteration of "squeeze,""squinch," and "splurge" describe the feeling of the berries popping in your mouth.

Kinnell repeats black and blackberries throughout his poem, which emphasizes the dark color of the fruit. He personifies the berries because they know a "black art." They practice the mysterious art that makes them taste so delicious. Also, they figuratively create their own black language because it is a tradition for the speaker to eat the blackberries every year. They literally form a black language because the juice turns your tongue a deep black-purple color. In the beginning of the poem, Kinnell describes the blackberries with a majority of cacophonous words, such as "fat," "overripe," and "black." They have harsh consonant sounds because he has to pick the berries, which can be dangerous because of their thorns. Then, in the end, he uses more euphonious words, including "silent," "startled," and "icy." They all have a soft "s" sounds because he has happily finished eating the blackberries.