Part of the enjoyment of poetry is the acceptance that some poems or parts of poems cannot be pinned down to a single meaning. Explore this view of poetry, and the ways in which poets use of language and from invites different readings.
In this essay I will be exploring ‘Blackberry-Picking’ by Seamus Heaney, ‘Two Scavengers in a Truck’ by Lawrence Ferlinghetti and ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ by Maya Angelou. In different ways they show that poems cannot be pinned down to a single meaning.
The structure of ‘Blackberry-Picking’ is essentially that of two, not-quite-equal halves. The first 16 ...