AP+poetry+photostory+09

Ryan Repoff

Blackberry-Picking by Seamus Heaney “Blackberry-picking” by Seamus Heaney is about a person that gathers blackberries in hope to eat them now and eat them later in the winter when the blackberry bush does not bloom. There are many examples in the text that support the idea that the underlying meaning of the poem is good things never last. In the first stanza of the poem, you feel delighted that the person in the poem picks and eats the blackberries. Phrases such as “thickened wine,” “summer’s blood,” and “lust for picking” exemplify that the blackberries were scrumptious and that the person had to go and collect all them and try to savor their flavor. “Summer’s blood” shows that the berries would only last during the summer. It is a stated face that blood does not last long being outside of the body. Therefore, the berries are similar because they will not last long after summer passes. A line later, the author uses the word “lust” to describe the feelings of the person picking. Simply by using the word “lust,” it shows that there is a deep love and passion for the need to pick and save the berries because of their wonderful taste. The transition of the poem comes from the last two lines of the first stanza when it mentions the phrase “our palms sticky as Bluebeard’s.” Bluebeard is an allusion for a type of man who marries women and then later ends up killing them. This is relative to the good things becoming bad because once you pick the berries from the source, they will no longer survive. It is our fault that the berries will not survive and we will not get to enjoy the berries later on, only now. This fervent tone in the first stanza quickly changes to a lugubrious tone in the second stanza. The author uses opposites from the first stanza to show how something so good can deteriorate. In stanza one, the author uses “thickened wine” and “flesh was sweet” to show that it was great in the beginning. In the second stanza, he uses the opposites such as “fermented” and “sweet flesh would turn sour.” The use of “fermented” shows that the berries once were sweet, but now they are sour and undesirable to eat. Again, “sweet flesh would turn sour” also shows the breaking down of the once loved berry becomes dejected because of the mold. A final note to mention, in the title, the author does not disconnect blackberry and picking to keep the poem like the meaning, have it living, beautiful, and fresh instead of dead and ugly. “Blackberry-picking” by Seamus Heaney is about how people try to save the moment and relive it over and over, but eventually it will get old and lose its meaning.

In my photostory, I took the literal meaning of the poem and took the pictures accordingly. I followed through the whole plot of the poem and took pictures by what the words meant. For example, when the poem said “leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for picking,” I took a picture of my tongue that was tainted a purplish to black color from actually eating a blackberry. Again, when the author wrote “Round hayfields, cornfields, and potato-drills We trekked and picked until the cans were filled,” I chose to take a picture of me walking on a trail with a field next to me with the full buckets in my hands. In general, the pictures that I took for the project dealt with the exact meaning of the poem. The music that I chose for my poem are “Oh, it is Love” by Hellogoodbye and “Should have Known Better” by Cinder Road. I chose “Oh it is Love” to set the tone for the first stanza because the first stanza has more of a fervent and loving tone by the way that they described how wonderful the berries and picking them were. The song has a similar connotation to it because of its beats and lyrics that it has. Overall, the song just made me feel good, just as the first stanza did. I used “Should have Known Better” for the second stanza because it has a similar tone as the second stanza, a lugubrious tone. The words in the poem and title are “should have known better,” and this relates how the picker of the blackberries feels after finding the moldy berries. The picker should have known that the berries would rot, but he just hoped that they wouldn’t because they were so good in the beginning. Overall, my music choice and picture choice stick with the plot of the poem.

Amy** media type="file" key="Digging Photostory.wmv" width="300" height="300" Seamus Heaney’s multiple uses of imagery in “Digging” really help create interest within the work and bring the poem to life. “Digging” is about a young man deciding what to do with his life. His family consists of a long line of farmers. They are all very interested in their work and excellent at what they do. The young man is proud of his forefathers, but he is unconvinced that farming is the right path for him. He loves writing and is contemplating p ursuing a career in this instead. After thinking it over, the young man decides that it is time to break free from tradition and follow his dreams. He forgoes farming, and dedicates his life to writing. Heaney’s abundant amount of imagery is essential in conveying this young man’s dilemma. Heaney starts the poem by stating that the pen is “as snug as a gun” in the young man’s hand. This creates the idea that the young man is a great writer, while also suggesting that he is meant to live his life out in the country. The young man knows what he wants to do, but does not know what he should do. Heaney then quickly transitions to describe the dedication of the young man’s forefathers. They were “straining rumps behind the flowerbeds,” who “[nicked] and [sliced] neatly.” These vivid descriptions help show why the young man is having such a hard time making his decision. His family is full of hardworking and dedicated farmers that are great at what they do, but the young man is also great at what he does, writing. Heaney’s imagery pulls the reader into the story, allowing him or her to share the young man’s feeling of being torn. They can visualize the young man’s story and connect with it. Heaney’s convincing use of imagery better allows the reader to understand what the young man is going through. The repetition of the word “digging” also emphasizes the young man’s struggle. He is constantly “digging,” or searching, for answers. He cannot stop until he finds them. After looking into the past and realizing how much impact digging has had on his forefather’s lives, the young man cannot just let go of their tradition. However, he decides to put a new twist on it. He takes firm hold of his pen, declaring, “I’ll dig with it.” This allows the young man to keep in line with his family’s traditions and follow his own dreams at the same time. With the help of Photostory, I added pictures and music to further emphasize the young man’s dilemma. In my Photostory, the young man is wearing the black jacket, with the exception of the last picture where he is wearing a white shirt, his father is wearing the short-sleeved plaid shirt, and his grandfather is wearing the long-sleeved plaid shirt. The first picture shows that the young man is trying to decide if he should follow his family work and become a farmer or if he should follow his dreams and become a writer. The subsequent slides show how his father and grandfather have been farmers for a very long time, and they are all happy with their work. The slides then go on to show the young man becoming disgusted with farming. He realizes that his family’s line of work is not his calling, and becomes a very happy writer in the end. The song I chose to go along with this poem was Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson. The woman in this song spent her childhood wanting to amount to something more than the rest of her family. She was always “dreaming of what could be and hoping [she’d] end up happy.” She “wanted to belong…but something felt so wrong.” In the end, the woman decided to “take a risk, take a chance, make a change, and breakaway.” She was not happy with her life and took the risk of breaking away from her family, even though she did not know what would happen to her. This is just like the story of the young man in “Digging," making "Breakaway" the perfect fit for my Photostory song.
 * Digging by Seamus Heaney

The Flea by John Donne Olivia

media type="file" key="PhotoStory1.wmv" width="300" height="300" John Donne’s poem, “The Flea,” is one that uses mostly metaphors and diction to convey the idea of a young man trying to take a young lady’s virginity. In the beginning of the poem, the line, “How little that which thou deniest me is,” is showing that the boy has a lover that is denying him what he wants. This line also makes the reader realize that this poem is most likely a seduction poem towards the woman. The next couple of lines describes how the flea drew both of their blood and now mingles within it. This personification of the flea’s blood actually symbolizes how bodies intertwine during sex, or how bodily fluids may be exchanged as well. Further in the stanza in the line, “A sin, nor shame, nor loss of maidenhead,” implies that the man believes that only one of those things would occur from them having sex. The author does this by using the word “nor,” to separate those possibilities from one another. In the last lines of the stanza, the man is basically expressing his frustration because he doesn’t have the privilege that the flea does by getting to enjoy his lover’s sweetness. In the next stanza, the first couple lines show the man asking to spare the flea’s life because it will save three. It is also said that, “this flea is you and I,” which makes the flea seem more important than it was earlier in the poem. The man also expresses the fact that they are together in the flea, and how it is their “marriage bed.” He is asking the woman why they cannot have the same relationship in real life that they do in the flea. In the last lines of the poem, the man is trying to convince the woman to sleep with him even though society, which is symbolized by her parents, frown upon premarital sex. He says, “we’re met,” which is saying that no matter what, their blood is mixed in the flea and society can’t stop that. So why won’t she have sex with him? In the last stanza, it is also apparent that Donne doesn’t use such explicit references to sex because he wants the focus to be more on marriage and not the physical relationship. The last stanza is generally stating the man’s realization that he most likely won’t get the girl, but he wants her to know that the option is always there. She is afraid that having sex will ruin her socially and mentally, but he tells her that doing it would have as much effect on her as killing the flea did; no effect at all. In the end, Donne’s use of the flea as an overall metaphor helped the man express his feelings for his lover. The word choice that applied to the actions of the flea mostly had a sexual meaning, and the syntax of certain lines also helped build the underlying meaning. In my photostory, I was supposed to represent the woman, Will was representing the man, and the flea was obviously the flea. The picture of the flea on the first slide was showing how the man was showing the woman the little, worthless flea. The next slide was supposed to symbolize the mingling “blood,” by showing the intertwining of the fingers. The third slide is meant to show the man trying to convince the woman to have sex with her, but she is still ashamed of what the result may be. The forth slide shows the man’s anger towards the flea because it is closer with his lover than he is, simply because it sucked her blood. Next, although you cannot see the blood in the flea, it represents how killing the flea would be like taking three lives. The sixth photo shows the man’s belief that the flea is like their marriage bed, but the woman however is still not convinced. The seventh slide simply shows how if they were to have sex, society would frown upon this. The woman, me, looks as though she is giving in, but her mother, representing society, is there to reprimand them. The next slide of the foot crushing the heart and the flea represents the thought that killing the flea would kill their love. The next slide shows me shrugging my shoulders, which implies that I don’t care about the flea. Will, the man, is mad about this because if I don’t care about the flea, I don’t care about the relationship. In the tenth slide, the man is still trying to convince the girl but in a less sexual way, hence why he is holding her hand. The eleventh slide shows the man telling the woman that having sex would have no effect on them, and the woman is considering her options. In the last slide, the throwing away of the heart and the flea shows that killing this relationship between them would be a waste; this is shown by throwing the flea, symbolizing them together, away with the heart, which represents their love. Finally, I made my photos black & white because the poem is more old-fashioned. I chose red for my text color because it symbolized passion and love. Lastly, I chose the song "Sensual Seduction" by Snoop Dogg because the song is meant to seduce a woman into having sex with him, and it also talks about the things he would do for her. This relates to the poem because it is a sensual poem, the man wants to have sex with the woman, and would therefore do many things for her and with her if they were in a relationship.