Storm On The Island Flashcards
Overall summary
Heaney is concerned with the conflic between man and nature, his poem is about a group of people living on an island preparing for a storm. The community initally thought they were well prepared for the barrage of a storm however, this confidence dissipates as the storm escalates and is replaced by fear.
Stanza summary
- It is comprised of one single stanza. The Islanders have designed their living environment to withstand storms. The land is barren and there is no hay which could be blown away by the storm.
-The narrator explains that living by the sea is not as pleasurable as it may seem.
Context
-Seamus Heaney lived from 1939-2013 and was raised in Northern Ireland within a Catholic household. He often wrote about his personal and local experiences of his youth such as picking blackberries or watching his father gathering.
-He is one of the most acclaimed Irish poets, second only to W.B Yeats.
-The poem doesn’t explicitly have any specific geographic or historical context perhaps to imbue it with a universality suggesting it could happen anywhere at any time.
-It was a poem in a collection called “Death of a Naturalist” looking at the Aran Islands and the power nature has over them. Within Irish poetry these islands are a symbol of Irish culture. This collection dismantled the romanticisation of natural beauty to instead explore the potential violence of nature.
-It is also a conceit (extended metaphor) for the tumultuous political situation in Northern Island i.e. the Troubles which was a ‘low level war’. There was also divisions between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland.
“Leaves and branches can raise a tragic chorus in a gale”
- The personifying metaphors “Leaves and branches can raise a tragic chorus in a gale” hints at nature consciously tormenting a man. Personification is used to imbue nature with enough power to compete a man.
- Moreover, in a Greek tragedy, a “chorus” would give commentary on an explain events, the absence of trees in this case depicts the isolation of the islanders who are left alone to fight and interpret the storm.
“Spit like a tame cat”
-Throughout the poem, this personification shifts to zoomorphism (giving an object/person/noun the qualities of an animal) with the image “spits like a tame cat turned savage”
- This could highlight how nature could be deceptive with its apparent beauty or innocence but it in fact has the capacity for violence and brutality. The juxtaposition of “tame” and “savage” is used to portray the mercurial nature of the storm.
- Moreover, the alliterative ‘t’ sound mimics the sound of water hitting the islander’s homes, the poet plays on the readers sense to immerse them within the storm and convey how overwhelming it can be.
-This seems oxymoronic because a tame cat shouldn’t be aggressive. If the cat is a simile for nature, Heaney is suggesting nature had a tame and docile side so it’s not always like this.
-Mistaken belief that they had tamed nature: then the cat turns against its owner.
Replicates how the islanders never owned nature- natures power is sempiternal.
“We are prepared”
Arrogance in the declarative “we are prepared”- too confident shown by his bold and declarative, they are confident in their ability to overpower nature. But, also betrays their fear, they have completely adapted their lives to the purpose of resisting nature.
“Company”
-There is a sense that he feels betrayed by nature, there is repetition of the noun “company” to establish the myth that nature is mankind’s friend. Through his description he then confutes this suggestion to show that the typically celebrated beauty of nature can be misleading.
The title
- The title itself is an allusion to “Stormont” the government building of Northern Ireland. This is a suggestion that laced between the natural imagery of the poem there are political undertones.
“Pummels” “exploded” “salvo” “bombarded”
- There is a semantic field of a battle create through “pummels” “exploded” “salvo” and “bombarded”. A lexis (language) relating to military violence could indicate that it is more political than we might initially expect. Heaney could be writing about the fear that overwhelms a community when violence is on the horizon, like an incoming storm.
- By comparing the storm to a military plane Heaney shows the speaker that the islanders are under attack from nature. This creates a tone of violence and aggression. The excessive use of plosives such “blows full blast” could be reflective of bullets.
“Houses squat/ good slate” and “the empty air/ huge nothing that we fear”
- The half rhyme between the first and last couplet [“Houses squat/ good slate” and “the empty air/ huge nothing that we fear”] creates a cyclical structure that connects the preparation for the storms at the start, to the fear of the storm’s power at the end.
- The cyclical nature of the poem shows the resistance of the islanders. Storms will come again and again, and they have to learn to live with them and endure it: the cycle of preparation, storm and recovery is never ending. However, due to the fundamental insufficiency of human power, no matter what humans do there is always the possibility that nature will destroy nature’s power is greater.
Metaphor
The single 19 line stanza of the poem is a metaphors for the way the islanders huddle together in preparation for the storm, similarly they build their “houses squat” to maximise their protection against the elements.
Blank verse
- It’s written in blank verse to make the poem sound controversial (this is mirrored by the colloquialisms)- this presents the experience of a storm as casual and regular; the people are so accustomed to the feeling of fear if has become an everyday occurrence.
Lack of stanzas
- The lack of stanzas denies the reader any respite or pause to uphold the same level of tension throughout the whole poem.
No rhyme
- The poem generally doesn’t rhyme; however the first and final couplet has a slant rhyme or “squat/slate” and “aid/fear” which is unsettling. It denies the reader the satisfaction of a full rhyme scheme which suspends them within the same aspic of waiting that the islanders operate in whilst expecting a storm. There is an overarching sense of apprehension.
Cyclical structure
- It gives the poem a cyclical structure to portray the storm as unescapable and repetitive- they are stuck in a perpetual cycle of preparation, waiting and recovery.
- There is a Volta in line 14 as the tone shifts from the optimistic confidence and preparation to a defeat against the aggressive brutality of the storm.
