

Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Prepare for your exams
Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points to download
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Community
Ask the community for help and clear up your study doubts
Discover the best universities in your country according to Docsity users
Free resources
Download our free guides on studying techniques, anxiety management strategies, and thesis advice from Docsity tutors
Exercise about literature for university students
Typology: Exercises
1 / 2
This page cannot be seen from the preview
Don't miss anything!
Hilda Faeza Arifin (160110101083)
Analysis poem “Blackberrying” by Sylvia Plath using discursive method
by Sylvia Plath
Nobody in the lane, and nothing, nothing but blackberries, Blackberries on either side, though on the right mainly, A blackberry alley, going down in hooks, and a sea Somewhere at the end of it, heaving. Blackberries Big as the ball of my thumb, and dumb as eyes Ebon in the hedges, fat With blue-red juices. These they squander on my fingers. I had not asked for such a blood sisterhood; they must love me. They accommodate themselves to my milkbottle, flattening their sides.
Overhead go the choughs in black, cacophonous flocks— Bits of burnt paper wheeling in a blown sky. Theirs is the only voice, protesting, protesting. I do not think the sea will appear at all. The high, green meadows are glowing, as if lit from within. I come to one bush of berries so ripe it is a bush of flies, Hanging their bluegreen bellies and their wing panes in a Chinese screen. The honey-feast of the berries has stunned them; they believe in heaven. One more hook, and the berries and bushes end.
The only thing to come now is the sea. From between two hills a sudden wind funnels at me, Slapping its phantom laundry in my face. These hills are too green and sweet to have tasted salt. I follow the sheep path between them. A last hook brings me To the hills’ northern face, and the face is orange rock That looks out on nothing, nothing but a great space Of white and pewter lights, and a din like silversmiths Beating and beating at an intractable metal.
Analysis
Blackberrying is a poem written by Plath to show satisfaction in being the mother of her life. The atmosphere of poetry in the first two verses is happiness and joy. Towards the end of verse two and all three verses there are mood swings and poetry becomes rather sad or tense. The word ablackberry was used several times in the opening of poetry. It aims to emphasize the importance of the object in the poem, which might be a symbol of how Plath's children are an important part of her life. The parable used creates the feeling that the absence and cessation of the path in poetry means death in her life. In the first verse of poetry, Plath takes the reader to the scene when picking blackberries in the forest near the sea. Through the use
of personification, the Plath describes the berries as if they were someone with eyes and so
on.
In the second verse, Plath expands the background by entering the heavens and other living
things - birds and flies. Coughing is a dark bird, related to crows. They are presented here as
an unpleasant feeling, indicating death. They are described as "black" rather than "black", as
if they were wearing black clothes, as if in mourning. They are compared to "burning pieces
of paper," like ash flown from fire; and they bite in "protest" on some of the violations that
are not named. Significantly, the black color of the birds is reminiscent of the black berries.
In line with that the speaker said about blackberry bushes that were too ripe and infested with
flies. The connection with death also occurs here, because the blackberry is described as
rotten and covered in flies. Plath, then, has built a connection between blackberries, chats,
and flies through their black coloring and advice on death.
The last temple makes a contrasting atmosphere between the fields of blackberry bushes and
beaches. There is another subtle allusion to this temple to the human world - references to
"laundry", "sheep", and "tin" - may indicate violence and violence associated with humans.
On the contrary, the heavenly world of the blackberry field has "nothing" in it. The poem thus
describes a different journey or event.