Black-berrying

Question 1

Who wrote blackberrying

Answer 1

Sylvia Plath

Question 2

When was blackberrying wrote and in what collection

Answer 2

Wrote in 1961 published posthumously in 1971 in the crossing water collection

Question 3

What is the form of blackberrying

Answer 3

Dramatic monologue in present tense

Question 4

What is the structure of blackberrying

Answer 4

Free verse
Spenserian stanzas – an old fashioned, classical structure which is in tension with the more modern use of run-on lines or enjambment which make it sound more prose-like.

Question 5

What tone in blackberrying

Answer 5

Negative

Depressing

Question 6

What is the theme of blackberrying

Answer 6

Childhood,
parenthood,
suicide,
confinement

Question 7

What is the context of blackberrying

Answer 7

Wrote after moving to England
Wrote after her brother Warren visited
Sylvia had just finished the bel jar in 1961

Question 8

Critics or diary entries

Answer 8

Seamus Heaney described her approach as “A degree of imaginative access where we feel the poem as a gift arising beyond the poets control”

Paula Bennet “virtually all the poems Plath wrote in 1961 suggest the same sense of isolation, frustration and internal division

Feminist readings suggest the poem focuses on her transformation through motherhood rather than being a victimised daughter

Question 9

Quick language techniques

Answer 9

• Symbolisation of Berries for motherhood, chores and responsibility
• Symbolisation of sea for freedom, suicide
• imagery of parenthood “Milk bottle” and reference to berries being dependent on her showing parenthood
• Repetition of nothing to show isolation
• Enjambment and use of all senses to show deep connections shown through blood
• Sensory Imagery “green meadows are glowing” juxtaposition of negative tone, showing she doesn’t care about the beauty of things anymore, she wants a final destination.