“Blackberry Picking” was published in Heaney’s debut poetry collection in his mid-twenties, and many poems in that volume center around the idea of growing up and transitioning life stages. This focus, which is among the poem’s major themes, is also clearly influenced by Heaney’s rural upbringing—he was the son of a farmer in County Derry in Northern Ireland, and so his childhood would have been infused with an appreciation and understanding of the natural world, including its folk traditions (further examined below).

Although not devoutly religious, Heaney was raised Catholic. In fact, it was his Catholic faith that brought him to the republic of Ireland away from the nationalist conflict of the Troubles so prevalent through his lifetime. This poem contains allusions to the Holy Communion, such as drinking the manifested blood of summer as though it were wine (Line 6), and the prickly briar that evokes Christ’s crown of thorns at the crucifixion (Lines 10, 16). This symbolism may have been intentional, or it may have simply come from the poet’s awareness of the relationship between spirituality and the land, as faith and belief can often seep unnoticed into many aspects of life.