St Francis And The Sorrow Poem Analysis

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American based poet, Galway Kinnell was born in the year 1927 in Providence, Rhode Island. Growing up Kinnell was a very shy and introverted child who often turned to American literature and poetry to escape daily life (Poetry Foundation). Kinnell, who spent two years in the United States Navy then went on to receive a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and a Master’s degree from The University of Rochester. During the times of when he was most active writing poetry was during and after the civil rights movement in America. Kinnell was also part of many groups that supported voting rights of blacks…”in the 1960s, Kinnell joined the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE), registering African American voters in the South. Many of his experiences—world travel, city life, harassment as a member of CORE and an anti-Vietnam war demonstrator—eventually found expression in his poetry”(The Poetry Foundation). The activism that was portrayed by Kinnell was also displayed in his poetry. Many of his poems are about social injustices, criminals or nature that was reverted back to human actions. Kinnell has not referred to himself as a nature poet but over time many have connected him with nature poet Walt Whitman and his transcendentalist poetry (The Poetry Foundation) Kinnell was a very distinguished poet, earning many awards and praises, amongst them was a Pulitzer Prize. “Selected Poems (1982), for which Kinnell won the Pulitzer Prize and was co-winner of the National Book Award in 1983, contains works from every period in the poet’s career and was released just shortly before he won a prestigious MacArthur Foundation grant”(The Poetry Foundation). Kinnell continued to write poetry up to his recent death in 2014 in Vermont. The poem “Blackberry Eating” by Galway Kinnell was written in 1980. In the short 14 line poem it is easy to pick up a few things about this poem. It is written in the first person so you know that it is most likely coming from Kinnell himself about something personal or he has experienced. Also, there are no periods what so ever in the entire poem, only commas and semicolons which give it a different way of how it should be read. This poem does not fall into one certain genre but can be classified under a subgenre (Poetry Explication). Within reading this poem once the reader can see that both the beginning and the end of the poem are nearly identical which could make it similar to a 14 line Petrarchan sonnet without the rhyming rhythm. Kinnell uses many literary devices in this poem such as imagery, metaphors, personification and more. “The poem appears to…be obviously a metaphor comparing writing to picking/eating blackberries. There is, however, a section of the poem that seems to defy any solid interpretation” (Clagett). Much of this poem talks about blackberries it is hard for one to think that it may have another meaning other than that. To my understanding the poem is mainly about writing. Kinnell uses so many literary devices in this poem it is hard to not think so. Lines 10-14 like strengths and squinched, many-lettered, …show more content…
It is a very relatable poem that can still be relevant today even though it was written in 1976 in the midst of his popularity (The Poetry Foundation). This poem is definitely a dramatic lyric poem because it is telling a story you can follow from the beginning to the end. There is no apparent literary elements that first jump out at the reader but you can pick it apart to see the message clearly. The speaker of this poem is from the outside reminiscing on something. While reading you can start to see the imagery of the sow that Kinnell talks about and how it regains its love for its self (Poetry Explication). It only seems appropriate that Kinnell use St. Francis because he is the saint of animals (St. Francis of Assisi). When he speaks of “the bud” in the beginning of the poem it is almost like he is talking about all things that grow. All things start out small and have to grow up or bloom at some point, with potential of things to come (Saint Francis and the Sow). When he references “loveliness” in line six it is foreshadowing to the end when the sow finds her loveliness. In lines

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