Storm On The Island

Question 1

Seamus Heaney was from…

Answer 1

County Derry Northern Ireland

Question 2

Link to religious tension and conflict

Answer 2

IRA and the troubles between Protestant unionists (UK) & Roman Catholic nationalists (ROI)

Question 3

Power of nature, fearful and destructive

Answer 3

Community must adapt to power of nature and always be prepared

Question 4

Nature being unpredictable

Answer 4

Sea compared to
“ a tamed cat turned savage”
May seem calm but can attack

Question 5

Heaney identifies with the community

Answer 5

“We”
“We are prepared”

Question 6

Fear and anticipation

Answer 6

“It is a huge nothing that we fear”

Question 7

Clear war theme presumably between humans and nature

Answer 7

The sea “explodes”
“Wind dives and strafes” a warplane, bombing from the air

Question 8

“ Huge nothing that we fear”

Answer 8

Paranoia
Weather is the nothing
Biblical links god as the nothing

Question 9

Monosyllabic words at start of poem

Answer 9

“Rock” “squat” “sink”
Short simple words represent the simple bare landscape

Question 10

Conversational style, using “you”

Answer 10

Encourages us to imagine that we are involved
“As you see”
“You know what I mean”

Question 11

Use of “no”

Answer 11

Negation, everything is barren and flat, what we expect to find is not there and has been stripped away