The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Heaney, Seamus. “Blackberry Picking.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50981/blackberry-picking.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

“Blackberry Picking” takes place on a rural Irish farm, where a young person and their friends are foraging for blackberries. It draws on Seamus Heaney’s own childhood near the Northern Irish border in the mid-twentieth century, and explores humanity’s relationship with the natural world. The speaker of the poem attempts to gather more berries than they can eat, and the fruit ultimately rots away. The experience becomes symbolic of the transition from childhood to adulthood, a growing awareness of mortality, and respect for the seasonal rhythms of the land.