Blackberry Eating, by Galway Kinnell
I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths and squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry-eating in late September.
Could writing skillfully be a “black art”? Galway Kinnell, the author of “Blackberry Eating,” was artistic and had an instinct for writing; he chose words so intuitively it was as if by magic. He once said it is “through something radiant in our lives that we have been able to dream of paradise, that we have been able to invent the realm of eternity.” In “Blackberry Eating” Galway Kinnell writes about an enraptured persona who picks and eats blackberries for breakfast during the final days of September. The poet illustrates the blackberries, letting the reader feel their “prickly” stalks, feel how big they are, hear their sounds as they are eaten, and taste their over-ripeness. He enigmatically writes that their spikes are “a penalty / they earn for knowing the black art / of blackberry making” (lines 4-6). He loved nature and familiar, every day activities—but was there a meaning beyond them? Like romantic poets, did he find some obscured truth in the wilderness, using his imagination to unveil it? “Blackberry Eating” is secretly about sorcery, the danger of having such a skill, and has the theme that writing is like spellcasting.
In “Blackberry Eating” there are hints that the poem is about witchcraft. The chill of “late September” is eerie as the time of year is getting close to Halloween—when people believed that magic happened. It was thought that bonfires could deter ghosts, and “Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easier for the Druids, or Celtic priests, to make predictions about the future” (“Halloween”). The word ‘black’ outside of the word ‘blackberries’ is mentioned three times within the poem. Like magic the colour is mysterious, and doesn’t have to mean something immoral. Magic can be used in charming ways, like how black can appear in beautiful sights such as the night sky. “[T]he ripest berries” could be the most magical and “peculiar” words of a spell (lines 7 and 8), as the persona acts possessed by enchantments that “fall almost unbidden to my tongue, / as words sometimes do” (lines 8-9).
Having magic comes with risks. Galway Kinnell writes of “a penalty / they earn for knowing the black art / of blackberry making,” referring to the stalks of blackberries (lines 4-6). If the blackberries symbolise magic words, the stalks represent the disadvantage of having such a power. Historically, in many places in the world people have feared magic and punished those who appeared to use it. Just as being a witch used to be a capital offense in Scotland, a person may be thought to do wrong by writing the sharp, distressing truth—“…for knowing the black art” (Goodare; line 5).
Discovering the right words and putting them in the right order is done with the care and insight of making an incantation. When the persona eats blackberries the way it is described is like they are finding and adoring words. They feast on blackberries as they delight in adding to their vocabulary. With the art of language the persona has the power to imaginatively create illusions in the minds of readers; to heal, reveal truths, and make beautiful things. Things that were previously impossible can happen when communicated through writing.
Beyond the words of the poem “Blackberry Eating” is the subject of sorcery; the writer describes having magic as a peril, and the poem has the general idea that inscribing words is like expressing a spell. “Blackberry Eating” can conjure up in the reader’s mind uncanny images of witches and strangely unexpected utterances. Being a sorcerer or a wielder of words can be hazardous because one can face a “penalty.” Using grammar skillfully and choosing effective words is like making a magic spell. In “Blackberry Eating” words are enjoyed with a love of learning, as if each one has an unforgettable magic power.
Works Cited
Goodare, Julian. “A Royal Obsession with Black Magic Started Europe’s Most Brutal Witch Hunts.” National Geographic, 17 Oct. 2019, https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2019/10/royal-obsession-black-magic-started-europes-most-brutal-witch. Accessed 24 Feb. 2022.
“Halloween 2021.” Edited by History.com Editors, History.com, A&E Television Networks, 18 Nov. 2009, https://www.history.com/topics/halloween/history-of-halloween. Accessed 23 Feb. 2022.
Kinnell, Galway, “Blackberry Eating.” The Seagull Book of Poems, edited by Joseph Kelly. W.W. Norton & Company, 2018, p. 191.
A Dream of Writing 