Blackberry Eating

Poetry is an artform that many people enjoy reading or hearing. “Blackberry Eating” is a primer for how words form through association and also how the poet/speaker speaks those words out loud and then places them on the page. Kinnell applies a ritual he performs at a specific time of year to his poetic process. Because the poet was at a mid-point in his life and in his career when he wrote “Blackberry Eating,” his metaphor for writing is placid. In earlier works, like “The Porcupine” and “The Bear,” the speaker must struggle with the animal side of human nature to compose his poetry. “Blackberry Eating” is a poem written by someone more at ease with his poetic process. Instead of confronting a wild animal like a bear or a porcupine for sustenance, the speaker easily finds nourishment foraging blackberries. As he forages for blackberries, they “fall almost unbidden to my tongue” (Line 8) and require little effort to eat.

By eating these blackberries, the speaker gathers words to describe the feeling of finding the right word, processing it in his mind and in his mouth, then forming these words into a poem.