Storm on the Island

Question 1

Form

Answer 1

• One long stanza with complex sentences. Not much room to stop for a breath. Lack of stanza breaks and breathing space reflects how overwhelming it is.
• It is a non-stop barrage with no time to stop and think which is exactly how it is like in the storm.
• Dramatic monologue reflects imbalance in relationship with the speaker and nature. Lack of voice so nature doesn’t care that if fills him with fear.

Question 2

Opening

Answer 2

“We are prepared: we build our houses squat”
* “We” suggests Heaney is not alone and is part of a community. It suggests that they are ready to endure the elements or the metaphor of the war and the bombing.
* “We are prepared” phrase is short suggesting confidence. “Prepared” suggests they have already seen the fierce elements and it creates a sense of mystery in the poem.
* “squat” – low and stumpy so they can withstand the storm.
* Iambic pentameter so a strong regular beat that gives a sense of solidity to match the buildings.
* “Our” reflects the 6 counties of Northern Ireland

“Wizened earth”
* The land is much more knowledgeable than man as it has been there and seen more of the past. The conflict in Northern Ireland has its origin centuries ago. Or the earth in its physical state is dried up and old.
* The idea is complex. Though Heaney is an Irish writer this doesn’t seem to be a depiction of Ireland, which is always wet and rainy, and the terrain green and lush. ‘Wizened’ therefore suggests the metaphorical effects of a hard life, perhaps with energy or nourishment dried out of it; a country damaged by decades of war.
* There is a symbolic meaning; this ‘wizened’ terrain could be any location that has suffered war and perhaps despoliation; in this sense it applies to Northern Ireland. Has universal application.

Question 3

SOAPAIMS

Answer 3

“You might think that the sea is company, Exploding comfortably”
* Natural company to the islanders but Heaney teases the reader with the suggestion of comfort but quickly dismisses it.
* “Exploding comfortable” – oxymoron as the violent waves crash against the cliff like an explosion. The reference to bombs which is all over the poem to show that Heaney experiences it many times and we take our lives for granted as bombs are unnatural.
* Alternatively, the “exploding comfortably” may be suggesting that it is happening somewhere else, and it is happening in Britain as the Catholics started bombing in Britain to make Northern Ireland independent
* Personifies the sea and the sea isolates us which reflects the reality of Ireland being isolated as they have internal conflict.
Structure

• Half rhyme “air…fear” and “squat…slate”. The wild storm is not controlled or organised, so a half rhyme is used to represent the chaos.
• Full rhyme would be too perfect. The poem starts and ends with the same half rhyming couplet so cyclical, structure. Storm is inescapable and will occur again.
• Enjambment creates constant barrage of information which reflects the storm on the house.

Question 4

Structure

Answer 4

• Half rhyme “air…fear” and “squat…slate”. The wild storm is not controlled or organised, so a half rhyme is used to represent the chaos.
• Full rhyme would be too perfect. The poem starts and ends with the same half rhyming couplet so cyclical, structure. Storm is inescapable and will occur again.
• Enjambment creates constant barrage of information which reflects the storm on the house.

Question 5

Ending

Answer 5

“Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear”
* Oxymoronic phrase “huge nothing” after caesura indicates the power of nature that dominates man’s small concerns. Or the war is over nothing, and we should stop this.
* Dramatic pause after “Strange” allows Heaney to show the significance of nature and human conflict in the poem
* The ‘huge nothing’ is baffling and ambiguous. Islanders are prepared for the storm and the elements may be ‘nothing’, though storms are always awe-inspiring. Maybe the ‘huge nothing’ is the unfathomable, groundless, and unnecessary hostility between communities.
* We are left with an ambiguous conclusion. This is a poem about the elements; a storm that the community, the ‘we’ of the first stanza, is accustomed to.
* The islanders are safe and warm whilst the storm/violence goes on below them. It is also a real conflict, the Northern Ireland Troubles, which affected so many and about which Heaney expresses fear in this poem. It may be of universal significance, any conflict anywhere.