Point of View

The poem is largely told from the first-person point of view using the pronoun “I.” However, this indication doesn’t appear until the third stanza: “I’m conjuring up for you […] Today it’s me” (Lines 13, 15). The first stanza, by contrast, appears to be told in the third person: “an old woman / is picking blackberries” (Liens 1-2). It’s only later revealed that this old woman is the speaker — but also the speaker’s mother and grandmother. This unique narrative choice gives the poem a timelessness that allows multiple generations and viewpoints to exist in a single moment. In the second stanza, more details are added that roots the scene in a particular time and place, allowing the speaker to emerge in the “I” pronoun. The rest of the poem follows a conversation between the speaker and the object of the poem, or the reader...