The image of the boy finding the rotting blackberries is described using alliteration ‘we found a fur’ ‘a rat-grey fungus,’ the harsh fricative ‘f’ sound illustrates the tone of frustration and disappointment within Heaney which is also transferred to the reader through this shocking visual image which everyone can identify with. The second half of the poem describes how the blackberries rot and there is a noticeable change in tone from youthful exuberance to frustration and disappointment. The reader associates these images of vibrant red with vitality and life, as is Heaney’s intention, to accurately portray to the reader the sheer excitement of childhood, in stark contrast with the reality to come in the second stanza. The blood imagery continues throughout the poem with ‘summer’s blood’ illustrating a dominance of the colour red throughout. Some of the blackberries are ‘green, hard as a knot’ and this image portrays the boy himself, young and innocent, not yet mature himself.
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