This is the outline for the year. At this stage it is a draft document as a number of dates have not been finalised. It will give you a rough idea of how the units will run and how long you have to complete work. Each unit comes with a more detailed break down of activities and deadlines.
Year 11 Literature 2014 Planner
You will also require the details and texts for the holiday homework. In the file below you will find the instructions for the tasks and the five texts you will require: a poem and four short stories spanning the last 180 years. I hope you enjoy the stories.
Mr Young's Blog 
The end of Task 4, in the written respose, stated to post our paragraphs on the blog entry that contained the poem ‘Blackberry Picking’, so I am assuming this is it. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Seamus Heany’s ‘Blackberry Picking’ explores the idea of human beings not being able to enjoy smething until it is gone. The speaker of the poem, whom we assume is Heany himself, is looking back on fond memories of his childhood. The youth of his childhood is represented by the blackerries. The action of blackberry picking depicted in the first stanza suggests the loss of innocence as one enters the stage of adolescence. The ripening of the blackberries suggests the growing maturity of a youth, whilst pleasures experienced as a youth are presented by the tasting of the blackberries.
The poem begns with the blackberry’s ripening, “at first, just one, a glossy purple clot // among others, red, green, hard as a knot.” This is one of the only rhymes within the poem, the other one being at the end and. Whilst this one descibes the beginning of new life, the other one describes the end of life; of youth. “That all the lovely canfuls smelt rot // Each year I’d hope they’d keep, knew they’d not.” The reason these two rhymes are the only ones used within the poem is to allow the readers to easily recognise the obvious idea of change being conveyed. Just like how the berries began to rot, the writer became older.
Imagery is an aspect of the language that plays a vital role in the meaning that is interpreted from the poem. The use of the word ‘rat-grey’ instead of a simple ‘grey’ empathises the distaste of the deterioration of the berries, comparing them to filthy, disease ridden rats; even a traitor. As though the writer couldn’t comprehend theat these fresh, youthful berries would suddenly rot, and that he would be ‘tricked’ by youth, slowly aging over time.
The language used in the first stanze conatins a nostalgic and converstational tone that conveys simplicity to allow reders to identify with the writer. The second stanza is darker than the first, as the mood changes from blissful to gloomy. The language used in the second stanza is more direct and technical, thus demonstrating the idea of a loss of innocence as one enters adulthood.
Task 4: Blackberry Picking written response.
Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Blackberry Picking’ explores the shortness of life and how, in the end, we all become victims of the same fate. Age.
In the beginning of the poem the blackberries are described as ripening with “at first just one” being ready and the rest being “red, green, hard as a knot.” However as the poem continues, they all begin to ripen and enter what can be classes as ‘the middle’ or their lives.
The blackberries are described as having sweet flesh, and being “like thickened wine”. They are now ripe, in their prime. The poem moves on to the picking of the berries. It talks about how some are ripe, ready, and some are not, but that you pick them anyway. The berries are described as being “like a plate of eyes,” and again, this brings a very human image to mind. It also talks about receiving thorn pricks and having sticky palms. It seems as though the poem is slowly becoming more gruesome as we go further into it, bringing about images meant to shock us.
We then reach the end, of both the poem and the blackberries lives. By the 18th line we are at the end of the berries ‘prime’, they are beginning to rot. The rotting starts with a fungus, then the skin turns sour and the juice begins to stink. The berries are rotten, their lives have ended. Heaney then talks about how “it wasn’t fair” and about how it happens every year, even if he didn’t want it to; and this is a fact of life. It all ends eventually, even if you don’t want it to, even if you think it isn’t fair, people die everyday, and one day it’ll be your ‘blackberries’ and you won’t be able to stop it.
Task 4 Written Response:
Seamus Heany’s Blackberry Picking explores the regret of growing up. Heany’s references to growing up have a twisted and dark undertone that can evoke fear within the reader. He refers to Blackberries as,”a plate of eyes,” an image that sets discomfort loose within the reader. This line is but a representation of the people watching you in your life, waiting for you to grow up and join their horrid ways.
Heany’s use of language and rhythmic devices push the poem forward as it warps into reality. Alliteration and short sentences help quicken the pace in defining moments placing stress on the reader.
Heany explains that with each new year he hoped that something would be different, that something would change. He wanted that happy-go-lucky glimmer of hope he felt as a child but he always knew that it would never reappear. “Each year I hope they’d keep, knew they would not.”
Task 4: Blackberry Picking
Seamus Heany’s Blackberry Picking explores the reality that we will all succumb to death. The poem begins and the reader is lulled into a sense that it will be a sweet tale about picking blackberries. Heany weaves delicate words which describe the beginning of their lives, “You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet // Like thickened wine: summer’s blood was in it // Leaving stains upon the tongue and lust for picking”. The blackberries are depicted as “a plate of eyes”, encouraging a feeling of foreboding and making the poem slightly more uncomfortable to read. The poem builds a sense of urgency as the sentences shorten and the reader is propelled along with the help of some alliteration. The last line, “Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not” reminds you that one day, it will be your turn. Nobody keeps forever.
The poem Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heany explores a summer pastime and laments the short-winded joy of youth and the inevitability of age. On the surface, the poem gives an extremely visual picture and emotional insight into berry picking on lazy summer days. The poet describes the ‘sweet flesh’ of the very first blackberry, and the march out into fields bearing ‘milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots.’ The image formed by the words of the poem is very real, and clear in the mind of anyone who annually visits the bushes growing in their neighbour’s back paddock, or next to the railway lines, or down by the reservoir. The descriptive language that Heany uses pulls the reader into the poem.
The poet also uses rhyme and rhythm in places, to put emphasis on certain lines. The third and fourth lines describe the first appearance of berries and are also written in rhyme, while the fifth and sixth lines are written in what is almost iambic pentameter. These two poetic devices are used in many poems and songs to make lines easier to read and to understand, and easier to remember.
Despite the fact that Seamus Heany is quite obviously writing about blackberry picking in his poem of the same name, he tells a second story underneath the first. The poet reflects on his transition from child to grown-up as he writes that, ‘I always felt like crying. It wasn’t fair/ That all the lovely canfuls smelt like rot/ Each year I hoped they’d keep, knew they would not.’ The first line is written in a simple, almost childish tone. The last line talks of the poet’s knowing of the looming event of growing older, but also of a simple hope that his life would stay as perfect as it was in the dawn between green, sour berries and the onset of rot.
Task four holiday homework
Seamus Henry’s blackberry picking.
Seamus Henry’s blackberry picking explores the sour view upon growing up. Losing your youth and spirit is seen in this poem as a rotting infection which creates a horrible fungus and in return poisions the fruit. The fruit being children and the fungus being age. In reality growing old has many benefits in its self. However from a young age it is never viewed upon this way. This poem explores the drift less feeling of summer and the memories of joy you gain from those three mouths of the year. However as he grows older his drifting feeling of summer seems to drift more and more away. All the while watching his friends go through the same dilemma. This poem is designed to have key moments stick in your mind. The poems forms around this key moments using techniques to make those key moments really blossom. Such as only having two very specific lines rhyme. This is a great poem and if you didn’t really stop to think about it you would just think its about blackberry picking.
Seamus Henry’s ‘Blackberry Picking’ explores multiple concepts and ideas of youth and life. This is shown throughout the short poem, which describes blackberry picking as a child. The narrator writes the majority of the poem in first person. At the beginning of the poem, however, before referencing himself at all, the narrator says, “You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet”. By using this particular language feature, the text is encouraging the reader to sympathise with the narrator. Also, by using inclusive language in this way, especially in such an emotional poem, the text is encouraging the reader to become emotionally invested in the poem. The text is not actually referencing the reader, however, it is referencing another imagined character; the narrator’s younger self. When the narrator begins to describe the actual collection of the blackberries, he describes the blackberries as “…big dark blobs [that] burned/Like a plate of eyes.” This image is used in order to help the reader predict what will occur next. The image contains negative connotation and evokes a feeling of uneasiness in the reader, thus allowing them to predict that the happy image will soon be ruined. It is a gruesome image, thus ‘throwing’ the reader. The reader does not expect an odd image to be included in such a happy poem, therefore they begin to suspect that not is all what it appears to be. This image is selected specifically in order to evoke this sense of dread in the reader. Towards the end of the poem, the narrator begins to describe the fruit rotting. He explains how, once picked, “The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.” He is describing the rotting of the fruit, an image representing his spoiled youth. This is an important phrase in the sentence because it begins to establish the idea that the narrator and his friends are growing up as represented by fermented fruit, which is a core ingredient in wine, a very ‘grown-up’ drink. In the next line, further establishing this theme, the narrator says, “I always felt like crying. It wasn’t fair.” This line tells us that his friends are growing up around him, yet he clings to youth. This is represented by the very childish and immature attitude shown here. The reader is encouraged to imagine a small child, stomping his foot on the ground and whining “It’s not fair!” All of these examples from the text relate to the themes of youth and life, and shows the reader the narrator’s point of view on the inevitability of growing up and, essentially, the inevitability of death. The writer is trying to express the innate dread that we, as human beings, posses of change and the unknown.
Seamus Heaney’s poem ‘Blackberry Picking’ is a poem which uses contrast to illustrate the key idea of coming to accept the difficult truths of the human life. The poet uses two different contrasting stanzas to represent his joyousness and his enthusiasm as a child and the second stanza shows the poet reflecting on death.
On the third and forth line there is a rhyme, which really draws the readers attention to the two words, ‘clot’ and ‘knot’. Interesting word choice, these two words possibly are supposed to make us think of a blood type or other coagulated liquid. Also, this is the first time (though it won’t be the last) that Heaney describes the scene using more than just the visual. Here, he describes the texture of the berries – clotted (so probably soft) and the green ones “hard as a knot.”
On line five, there is the first introduction of a pronoun – “you.” It’s more likely to be a ‘you’ as in ‘we’ relationship than a ‘you’ and ‘I’.
On line ten, Heaney is telling the reader that they’re going off the beaten track for these berries. This is drawn to attention by the ‘bleached our boots’ part. Basically he’s saying they searched for the berries and got their boots wet, by either rain or early morning dew. Imagery is used throughout the poem to represent the differences between life and death. Heaney compares the differences between the ripe and unripe berries. He describes the ripe berries as ‘glossy purple clot’. The words flow together and are easy to say with, ‘glossy’ giving an onomatopoeic effect. Heaney uses the metaphor ‘clot’ which suggest how full and succulent the berries are. Oppositely, Heaney describes the unripe berries as being ‘red, green, hard as a knot’. This suggests how small and undeveloped the berries are. The use of commas suggests a lack of uniformity.
The first stanza is also thick with blood related imagery. ‘Glossy purple clot’ and ‘like thickened wine: summers blood was in it.’ This shows how ripe and full the berries were. He finishes the stanza by saying that their palms were as ‘sticky as Bluebeard’s’. Sticky palms was a well known phrase for someone who was said to be a thief. Also Bluebeard was a famous pirate that used to steal gold. Both of these phrases suggests that they where thief’s. They portrayed as murderers which with the blood of the berries on their hands.