Summary Of Blackberries By Yusef Komunyakaa

Yusef Komunyakaa, a contemporary poet, delivers an exceptional amount of detail in his poetry. Many of his poems tell stories that have a deeper meaning then a reader will realize. The poem “Blackberries,” by Yusef Komunyakaa requires great interpretation of tone, literary devices, structure, and theme to figure out the meaning. It seems to be a simple story of a boy picking blackberries. However, in the end the boy will truly realize how different he is. Yusef Komunyakaa sparks the reader’s interest in the first line. He says, “They left my hands like a printer’s / or thief’s before a police blotter” (1). With further interpretation, the line has come to be a representation of a boy actually picking blackberries, and the juice from the berries staining his hands. Throughout the day he daydreams, as well as thinks about mythology and history. He has his dog at his side, and he continues to watch the birds as they fly by. Then a car, with two children smirking at him, passes by. …show more content…
In the poem, he first introduces the tone of sorrow. Komunyakaa says “The left my hands like a printer’s / or thief’s before a police blotter” (1-2). The statement indicates that he feels sorry and compares himself to a thief being caught. Kalie Beckers agrees when she says, “This relates to when the thief is fingerprinted after he is brought to jail” (Beckers). A reader can also say that the tone of sorrow is present after he speaks of forgiveness in line 13 when he says, “Needful as forgiveness” (13). The tone also shifts to fear. He says, “The big blue car made me sweat. / Wintertime crawled out of the windows.”