Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney employs many literary techniques in an attempt to create the experience that the poet feels to the reader. Imagery, diction, and many other techniques are used in this poem and they all accomplish their goal of enabling the reader to experience blackberry picking as closely as possible without physically engaging in the activity. The techniques also convey a deeper metaphorical message for life and the idea that; hopes, that of which a child would hold, continue to be prevalent throughout life, despite the perpetual witnessing of the slaughter of such unrealistic hopes. This idea is subversively portrayed and even foreshadowed in the first line when contrasting elements of rain and sun are mentioned as forces of which bear life upon their combination. This is because "sun" which represents unrealistic childish hopes which are prevalent throughout life, combine with the "rain" of realization which tears apart those hopes and create life's emotional inevitabilities which in essence creates life as we know it. The form of the poem is set so that first half represents childhood's relative innocence, and the second half represents adulthood and on. Each line of the poem represents an increase in wisdom due to the acquisition of knowledge gained from life's lessons. This helps the reader interpret and relate to the poets own feelings of helplessness in that he is increasingly accustomed to life's deceits but yet perpetually impotent to thwart the emotional damage such deceit inflicts upon him. Heaney uses phonetically intensive words such as "tinkling"(13) to create sounds in the reader's mind and "blobs"(14) to create feeling for the readers. The use of slant rime("pots/boots" 9-10)
             along with exact rime("clot/knot" 3-4) creates an undulating rhythm, which sets a certain mood for the poem, one of confusion or emotio...