Red Fox

    In Red Fox by Margaret Atwood she develops an extended metaphor for a hungry human being through use of diction and imagery. Throughout the poem she uses the image of a Fox to express her main idea that hunger causes desperation which is the human response to hunger, and the need to survive. Through this poem however she does not only comment on the response to hunger by the starving but also by society.

    Atwood begins the poem The Red Fox by giving the idea that the fox is being spied on by the speaker. The speaker mentions that the fox "could care less" this creates the idea that the fox has its own problems to worry about and is not as worried by this presence because she is smart enough to sense any real danger. In the next stanza Atwood begins to create an idea of hunger by using words such as "lean" and "skinny". She also mentions the "desperation" of the fox. It is also in this stanza that she begins to show parallels between the fox and a human being, she doesn't directly state the word fox in this stanza and mentions "feet" instead of paws. In the stanza that follows Atwood asks "why encourage the notion of virtuous poverty?" it is through this question that she begins to recognize the problem with society, she makes reference to the things mothers are expected to do for their children, and all the ways they should sacrifice themselves. Her tone is somewhat sympathetic toward the fox that will do anything to survive, which is clear through the line "to survive we'd all turn thief".

    Overall in the poem Red Fox Atwood is using the fox as a metaphor for a human who is struggling to survive. Through diction she creates an idea of extreme desperation due to hunger, which can be seen through the image that she creates of the "lean" vixen. Food plays an important role in the poem as she alludes to all the ways mothers are expected to sacrifice themselves for their children. But in the end she concludes that "to survive we'd all turn thief", and that we should not live by this unspoken rule of "zero charity" because one day we might ourselves be in the same situation as this "fox".

From the Frontier of Writing

The tightness and the nilness round that space
when the car stops in the road, the troops inspect
its make and number and, as one bends his face

towards your window, you catch sight of more
on a hill beyond, eyeing with intent
down cradled guns that hold you under cover

and everything is pure interrogation
until a rifle motions and you move
with guarded unconcerned acceleration—

a little emptier, a little spent
as always by that quiver in the self,
subjugated, yes, and obedient.

So you drive on to the frontier of writing
where it happens again. The guns on tripods;
the sergeant with his on-off mike repeating

data about you, waiting for the squawk
of clearance; the marksman training down
out of the sun upon you like a hawk.

And suddenly you're through, arraigned yet freed,
as if you'd passed from behind a waterfall
on the black current of a tarmac road

past armor-plated vehicles, out between
the posted soldiers flowing and receding
like tree shadows into the polished windscreen.

In the poem the "Frontier of Writing" by Seamus Heaney he creates an idea of strong pressure from critiques during writing through use of an extended metaphor he develops throughout the poem. He develops this extended metaphor through his use of violent imagery and diction. He advancement to different areas in the poem suggests his progression in his writing.

    Seamus Heaney begins the poem by creating a setting of possibly what could be pictured as a desert, empty except for his car and the army cars of the soldiers. These soldiers are the ones questioning his presence, which literally I think are the people questioning him as a writer, and critiquing him. The reader can imagine the pressure he is feeling through his use of certain words such as "inspect" and "eyeing with intent all suggesting that he feels he is being placed under a microscope and evaluated. He also mentions that as he moves forward he feels "a litter emptier, a little spent" suggesting this isn't a pleasant experience.

Next Heaney drives to the frontier of writing. I took "frontier" as some type of unexplored field, suggesting he is reaching new ground in his writing, and progressing. This experience is similar to the previous and he says the sergeant is repeating data about, their eyes upon you like a hawk. But he makes it through to a tarmac road.The tarmac road is like an airport runway and he says "suddenly you're through, arraigned yet freed" and mentions a waterfall, so this all suggests he feels good now even though the previous experience made him feel tense. This new area is beautiful and he feels like an airplane on a runway about to take off into a sky of possibilities.

    Seamus Heaney uses imagery and diction to create settings which represent the progression of writing. He starts off being interrogated in what I imagine as a desert with people all around him. This is "a pure interrogation". After that point he is in a field where people understand him and his intent, but still watch him carefully making sure he does exactly what they want. Finally he makes his way to a tarmac road where the interrogation is over, and everything is diminishing behind him.

 

Blackberry Picking

Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first, just one, a glossy purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
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. Then red ones inked up and that hunger
Sent us out with milk cans, pea tins, jam-pots
Where briars scratched and wet grass bleached our boots.
Round hayfields, cornfields and potato-drills
We trekked and picked until the cans were full,
Until the tinkling bottom had been covered
With green ones, and on top big dark blobs burned
Like a plate of eyes. Our hands were peppered
With thorn pricks, our palms sticky as Bluebeard's.

We hoarded the fresh berries in the byre.
But when the bath was filled we found a fur,
A rat-grey fungus, glutting on our cache.
The juice was stinking too. Once off the bush
The fruit fermented, the sweet flesh would turn sour.
I always felt like crying. It wasn't fair
That all the lovely canfuls smelt of rot.
Each year I hoped they'd keep, knew they would not.

 

    In Seamus Heaney's "Blackberry Picking" through use of imagery and diction both positive and negative appeals to the readers senses, he also uses color to assist in his description. His poem becomes an extended metaphor for other experiences as he uses an experience that starts out positive and ends in a way that is inevitable, and negative.

    In the first stanza Heaney chooses his words carefully as he works to use the best words to describe this experience of a young child in a way that is innocent and eventful. Heaney uses words such as "glossy" as he mentions various different colors of blackberries. They are all ripe "like thickened wine" and held "summers blood" within. Even through his use of innocent imagery there is a sense of pain or uneasiness in the first stanza that he creates through metaphors like "plate of eyes", suggesting the poem is not all happy.

    The second stanza takes away the innocence of the experience as the blackberries begin, to the authors displeasing, to rot. Once again Heaney uses imagery to appeal to the reader's senses, however this time in a negative sense. The blackberry juice is now "stinking" as the reader is led into descriptions of "rat-grey fungus". Heaney states that the sweet flesh of the blackberries is now sour. He expresses his unhappiness, creating an emotional ending to the poem that started out positive with little foreshadowing of a maybe not so perfect ending.

    In the end all of this diction and mixture of positive and negative description create a poem that could be seen as a metaphor for many different things. The author starts out happy and innocent in his blackberry picking as if nothing could make him happier. But in the end the experience comes to a rotten end, there is a loss of innocence as he is forced to see his perfect blackberries in a way that he wishes he never had to, but he finds out that it is inevitable, and whether he liked it or not these sweet treats would turn sour.