Storm On The Island

Question 1

Who was the poet that wrote storm on the island ?what are some contextual points

Answer 1

Seamus Heaney
- catholic
- northern Irish port
- focused on rural life and identity

Question 2

What is the context of the poem ?

Answer 2

The troubles
-IRA: wanted Britain to leave, terrorist, bombing and urban warefare
- Southern Ireland, catholic and separate
- Northern Ireland, British and Protestant

Question 3

What are the two key points when looking at the structure of storm on the island ?

Answer 3

Enjambment and half rhyme

Question 4

Expand on enjambement within storm on the island ? Tie this with another point about everyday language and a qoute

Answer 4

Creates a constant barrage of information
- overwhelming power of nature dominating the narrative and is reflective of how it dominates the island
- use of colloquial language creators a juxtaposition and suggests this overwhelming force has become a part of everyday life
‘Exploding comfortably
- oxymoronic and juxtaposition between pastoral and antipastiral imagery convey how the speaker sees the everyday

Question 5

Expand on half rhyme ?

Answer 5

• lack of control reflected in the rhyme scheme as the storm cannot be controlled or organised so only half rhyme is possible amidst the chaos of it all
• further more a cyclical structure is used just as an end is in site it is crushed as the storm is continuous and seemingly everlasting

Question 6

What is the form of the poem and why ?

Answer 6

Dramatic monologue
- adheres to the conversions for a dramatic monologue
- power of nature and lack of voice suggests lack of care for nature as it jabs become a negative force
- reflective of an imbalance in the relationship between the speaker and nature

Question 7

How can we analyze the title ?

Answer 7

‘ storm on t’
- Irish parliament building
- first right letters of the title

Question 8

How does Heaney use pronouns ?

Answer 8

‘We’
- personal pronou
- creates a sense of uniformity

Question 9

How can we analyze the big qoute ?

Answer 9

‘Exploding comfortably’
- antithetic pairing of juxtaposing terms
- struggle between the agressive and harmful ideas the readers are encouraged to invisage with ‘exploding’ juxtaposed by the positive connotations of ‘comfortably’
- encourages the reader to consider the contradicting lives of the Irish during the trouble as they were faced with war in their day to day lives
-

Question 10

How can we analyse the bathetic structure of the poem ?

Answer 10

• incline of deeply aggressive vocabulary yet the poem ends with ‘it’s a huge nothing we fear’
• he diminishes the threat of the storm
• juxtaposition between huge and nothing conveying the complicated situation they are faced with
• allegorical significance as here Heaney conveys the Irish peoples perspective against the threat of the troubles

Question 11

How can we analyze the imagery of a cat ?

Answer 11

Spits like a time cat turned savage
- zoomorphic imagery of nature given anamalsitic qualities
- false belief that nature had been tamed
- nature was always more powerful and is uncontrollable
- juxtaposition between the pastoral imagery of the tame cat and ‘savage’