Storm on the Island Flashcards
“Storm on the Island”
The form is a political poem, “Stormont” is the capital building of Northern Ireland. “the Island” is a homophone for Ireland.
“Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate. This wizened earth has never troubled us”
The structure is one extended metaphor. It is symbolic.
The sibilance of the repeated “s” sounds give the impression of a sinister mood. Heaney is arguing that the political conflict between Catholics and Protestants is also sinister.
“Wizened” is ironic as it begins with the idea of wise but ends in age, suggesting that the society he is describing is shriveled up.
Instead of building walls, Heaney sinks walls, diminishing our experiences. The house becomes a metaphor for constructing. Juxtaposition.
“So that you listen to the thing you fear Forgetting that it pummels your house too”
Use of direct address, calling both Protestant and Catholic together, saying their conflict is an illusion.
Emphasised with their fear.
“It pummels your house too” shows that violence committed by one side is the same as violence committed against yourself.
Suggests that the violence in Northern Ireland is destroying everyone’s houses.
“You might think that the sea is company, Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs”
Personification of the sea, the sea is huge and isolating, this is juxtaposing the reality of Ireland’s isolation in the sea with the political conflict, which is what they think matters. However they are isolated themselves so therefore should change.
The juxtaposition of the sea “exploding comfortably” is symbolic, as it is a deliberate reference to bombing. He is saying that the people are becoming comfortable with bombing.
“Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear”.
Heaney’s moral message is that the Catholics and Protestants fear nothing, as they both believe in the same God, they are not different.
By calling it “strange”, Heaney may be asking the reader to pause here and think about whether the conflict should be normal or not.
The oxymoron “huge nothing” suggests that the nothing that they fear has a huge hold over them.
