Blackberry Eating
Galway Kinnell’s ‘‘Blackberry Eating’’ appears
in his fifteenth collection of poetry,Mortal Acts,
Mortal Words, published in 1980. ‘‘Blackberry
Eating’’ is a fourteen-line quatorzain, a term
applied to fourteen-line poems that do not con-
form to one of the three sonnet formats.
Although there is no rhyme scheme, the poem
is clearly divided into an octave and sestet, as in
the Petrarchan sonnet. Kinnell’s poem is one
long sentence, filled with rich imagery and sev-
eral examples of alliteration. Kinnell also makes
use of the simile in linking the power of black-
berries to the power of words. This is an action
poem, not a reflective one. With the first line,
Kinnell describes the act of picking blackberries,
and at the end, he describes creating words.
Important themes include nature, poetic creativ-
ity, and the Fall of Man. ‘‘Blackberry Eating’’ is
included in Kinnell’sA New Selected Poems
(2006). ‘‘Blackberry Eating’’ is also included in
the Bedford Introduction to Literature, eighth
edition, published in 2008.AUTHOR BIOGRAPHYKinnell was born February 1, 1927, in Providence,
Rhode Island. He is the youngest of four children
born to James Scott and Elizabeth Kinnell. After
graduation from high school, Kinnell attended
Princeton University, graduating summa cum22
GALWAY KINNELL
1980