Blackberry Eating By Galway Kinnell Analysis

In Galway Kinnell’s poem, “Blackberry Eating,” assonance, alliteration, and refrain are used in reinforcing the poem’s meaning that just like the speaker’s interest for “ripest” blackberries as described throughout the poem, words are also rich and intense, thus one is eating straight from the tree of knowledge.
To begin, the use of assonance can be heard in the poem in comparing the context or appearance of the black berries to words. This can be seen in the second line of the poem, “among the fat, overripe, icy, black berries,” where words can also be “fat” as in full of positive or negative meaning, “overripe” as in exaggerated,” and “icy” as in hurtful or cold. Nonetheless, the emphasis in the vowels in the phrase makes it stand out more to the ears of the readers. Another example of assonance can be seen in the eighth line, “fall almost unbidden to my tongue,” where the vowels in “fall” and “unbidden” can be heard. According to this phrase, the speaker compares “the ripest berries” to words, seeing as both “fall” from their tongue, as if the speaker could not control the need to learn more words.

This can be seen in the fourth line, “very prickly, a penalty” as if words were a “black art” of mystery. In setting a secretive tone, the speaker makes it sound as if one needs to be careful with what they say. Another example of alliteration can be seen in the tenth line, where the speaker states, “strengths or squinched,” identifying those words as “peculiar.” Not only that, but the speaker would “squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well” in the “silent, startled” September. In the love for blackberries, the speaker also is displaying their love for learning and life with the use of the