Blackberry Eating

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1980

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Poem Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Further Reading & Resources

Related Poems

“Dolphin” by Robert Lowell (1977)

Robert Lowell is a mid-century contemporary of Galway Kinnell. His volume The Dolphin is a sonnet sequence written without strict rhyme schemes or metrical patterns. These poems are comparable examples of the mid-century American sonnet. To note, Robert Lowell is a founding member of the Confessional school of poetry. Confessional poetry is deeply personal and explores struggles in the poet’s life. Kinnell works in a different mode and is not known as a confessional poet. This poem has a similar structure to “Blackberry Eating” but has a very different subject matter. It focuses more on Lowell’s mental health and failing marriage.

“Between Wars” by James Wright (1980)

This poem focuses on a natural setting but uses the disappearance of animals, first insects then swallows, to convey an ecocritical message. The title “Between Wars” references the period when synthetic pesticides like DDT ruined many ecosystems in the US. Rachel Carson researched and exposed the detrimental effects of pesticides in this period between WWII and Vietnam in Silent Spring (1963). James Wright is another contemporary of Kinnell’s and worked in the Deep Image style. He used the Deep Image style to engage with environmental topics like Carson’s book.

“The Bear” by Galway Kinnell (1968)

“The Bear” is an earlier poem by Kinnell about going out into nature to create poetry. However, this poem uses hunting for a bear as the metaphor for finding his words. This poem is rawer and uses blatant struggle to show the poet’s relationship with nature and poetry. In this case, “The Bear” is a younger man’s take on what goes into writing a poem. It contrasts the calm ease of creation in “Blackberry Eating,” which was written 10 years later and takes a more meditative stance.

Further Literary Resources

An Interview with Galway Kinnell by Susan Wheeler and Galway Kinnell (1980)

This interview appeared in The New England Review in autumn 1980, the same year that Kinnell published Mortal Acts, Mortal Words. In the interview, Wheeler and Kinnell discuss where the poet is in his career and personal life. It helps contextualize Kinnell’s life in Vermont and his views on teaching. The interview also explores Kinnell’s poetic philosophy at the point in his career when he wrote “Blackberry Eating.”

On the Poetry of Galway Kinnell: The Wages of Dying edited by Howard Nelson (1987)

This book is a comprehensive collection of essays, reviews, and contemporary views on Kinnell’s poetry. It follows his poetic development during the first half of Kinnell’s career, including his career mid-point poems like those in Mortal Acts, Mortal Words. The two poetry reviews of this volume by Harold Bloom and Hank Lazer are helpful to contextualize how reviewers received Mortal Acts, Mortal Words when it was first published.

“The Poetics of the Physical World” by Galway Kinnell (1971)

Kinnell lays out his poetic interests and primary philosophies in this essay. He defends his interest in Walt Whitman as a young student when Whitman’s poetry was an outlier in American poetry because he wrote in free verse. Kinnell explores the difficult choices of both writing in a strict poetic form versus free verse. The essay covers a range of Kinnell’s favorite poems, which influenced his style. Above all, Kinnell explores the importance of physicality and the physical world in this writing.