The following version of this poem was used to create this guide: Atwood, Margaret. “Blackberries.” A Poem a Day, https://apoemaday.tumblr.com/post/652993264004317184/blackberries.

Note that all parenthetical citations within the guide refer to the lines of the poem from which the quotations are taken.

“Blackberries” is told from the perspective of an older woman speaking to a younger woman. The poet, Margaret Atwood, was in her late 70s to early 80s when most of the poems in this collection were written, and so they serve as a retrospective as she looks back on a powerful life and her own personal experiences with aging. Although the poem deals strongly with mortality and change, its key message is to embrace these changes as a natural part of the cycle of life. It follows a woman picking blackberries, as her mother and grandmother did before her, and as her own descendants will after she is gone.