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 or 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.

Analysis, meaning and summary of Galway Kinnell's poem Blackberry Eating

5 Comments

  1. chris says:

    i like the poem i’m in english reading it but i swear it sounds like a sex story

  2. chris says:

    i like the poem i’m in english reading it but i swear it sounds like a sex story

  3. Clayton says:

    I love this poem! I am in English class right now having to read it for a WebQuest! Go Mrs. Campese. Haha.

  4. Dave says:

    splurge it well

  5. Charlie O'Toole says:

    For the pure joy of saying a poem aloud, no poem I’ve read compares to this one. Kinnell has really hit the musical nail on the head here.

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