The poem " Blackberries" by Yusef Komunyakaa recounts the narrative of a boy who gradually loses his purity. While gathering blackberries in the woods his hands are covered by the juices from the blackberries as he picks them. The young care free boy secures a feeling of happiness from this physical work and considers it to be noteworthy work. Be that as it may, as will see this sort of noteworthiness is lost. This poem passes on the account of the acknowledgment of a lost youth. This is done using imagery, diction, and metaphors. From the beginning of the poem the word choice gives a feeling of purity with the vibe of blame. The narrator attracts the reader by painting a picture of having crisp, sticky juices recolored on his hand as though …show more content…
"They left my hands like a printer’s or thieves before a police blotter" (line1-2), which begins the poem with an unforeseen dull meaning. This makes an unmistakable picture of his hands recolored purple, in each niche and wrinkle on his hand. The words in this poem influences it to appear that the boy considers himself nothing superior to a criminal. The boy fending for himself denies him of that sweet youth purity. However, "almost needful as forgiveness"(line 12-13), gives the feeling that the boy is waiting for pardoning. As though he were blameworthy for something concealed in his past. The repeating loss of youth honesty is a returning topic in the poem "Blackberries". In the third stanza Komunyakaa states, "an hour later, beside city limits road I balanced a gleaming can in each hand, limboded between worlds repeating one dollar" (line 16-17). The boy has returned from gathering berries in the woodland, and the setting is now in a city. He was constrained in life to remain in favor of the streets holding buckets of blackberries, trying to sell them for a dollar to individuals who had cash and simple lives. The boy fantasies about being able to take the berries home and making pies and cobbler, but however that fantasy is immediately decreased