Poetry Storm on the island Flashcards
‘We are prepared: we build our houses squat’
‘We are prepared: we build our houses squat’
‘we’-First person plural pronoun - signals it is a poem about community; coupled with the slightly menacing title, already there is the sense that this will examine the relationship between humankind and nature.
‘prepared’ - Adjective - Coupled with the caesura reveals they are overly confident. He feels he is fully prepared and is comforted and thinks he has time to spare showcasing his arrogance,
‘blows full Blast: ‘
‘blows full Blast: ‘
Plosive alliteration- emphasizes violent threat of the storm. – the sound is powerful and aggressive just like the storm will be.
‘Blast’ is a word associated with bombs showing the storm is destructive, like a bomb. This noun is another signal that this poem is subtly referencing the political troubles in Northern Ireland. The storm is powerful.
Enjambment after ‘full’ ensures the blast comesat the start of the line,possibly suggesting a sharp,unexpected gust of wind.
‘Exploding comfortably’
‘Exploding comfortably’
Oxymoron – contrasts ideas of safety as explosions are not comfortable things. The phrase seems to capture the strange state in which the islanders live their lives.The only kind of explosion that is comfortable, perhaps, is one that is far away. The point that the speaker is making, then, seems to be that when the storm does come, the island won’t be able to escape its reach. Man is insignificant in comparison to nature.
‘spits like a tame cat turned savage’
‘spits like a tame cat turned savage’
This metaphorical cat was once ‘tame’. Like a pet cat, the sea was once a comforting and domestic presence on the island, but when the storm comes, it becomes menacing and aggressive, as though it actively wishes the islanders harm. The simile may also describes a shift from civilization and peacefulness to ‘savage[ry]’ and violence. The cat was domesticated, but it doesn’t stay that way; it goes back to the way it used to be before it became part of human civilization.. Perhaps it symbolises how mankind has tried but failed to tame nature which, in reality, is an impossible feat. Politically, this could be a metaphor for the various rebellions in Northern Ireland in the 1960s from people the government thought ‘tamed’ following the end of the IRA campaign.
Structure / context
The first eight letters of the title spell out Stormont – the name of Northern Ireland’s parliament. The poem might be a metaphor for the political storm that was building in the country at that time. Dramatic monologue
Enjambment reflects the repetitive cycle of the storm which people face too often.
Caesuras slow the pace of the poem to prolong the devastation the storm causes.
