Lines 1-9

In this opening stanza, Plath's speaker introduces readers to the scene and the task at hand - picking blackberries in a woods near the sea. In the first line she strongly establishes the isolation of the setting, emphasizing that "nobody" is in the lane and repeating the word "nothing." Through the use of personification, Plath depicts the berries with human characteristics, as though "peopling" the scene with blackberries. They are associated with the speaker's thumb, they are likened to eyes, and they "squander" their juices. By accumulating these details, Plath prepares the reader for an unusual but intriguing bond between the blackberries and the speaker: they have a "blood sisterhood" and the berries "love" her. In this stanza Plath also introduces the image of a hook, in the curves of the blackberry "alley" or lane. She also introduces the image of the sea, although as of...