Storm On The Island Flashcards
Form of poem
Title
Political poem
‘Storm on the island’
Stormont -Irish parliament
‘The island’ - homophone for island
Protestant? Catholic?
By the end we realise that it’s a huge storm but it’s only on an island- problem that can be overcome it’s not big
What is the structure
Symbolic, Extended metaphor
‘Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate.’
Sibilance- sinister mood- storm is sinister and conflict between Catholic and Protestant is sinister.
Consonance - repetition of ‘t’s, ‘c’s, ‘k’s harsh sounds- harsh experience the island is suffering.
‘Sink walls’ - JUXTAPOSITION-not building walls
So when we build our identity as Protestant or Catholic we’re building walls- but what we’re actually doing is sinking- diminishing our experiences.
‘This wizened earth has never troubled us’
‘Wizened’- shrivelled up
Political state in northern island is making them old and frail- damaging them.
Building of the house is a - for -
Building the house is a metaphor or constructing identity which is the opposite of building, its ‘sinking’ (diminishing experiences)
Direct address used, significance
‘So that you listen to the thing you fear
Forgetting that it pummels your house too.’
‘You’ - referring to both Protestant and Catholic
Division between the two is not real- its an illusion
They’re afraid of each other but it’s their ‘Fear’ that they have in common.
If you stop fearing the ‘storm’ then the storm will have no power to destroy you.
‘Forgetting that it pummels your house too’
Violence committed by one side is the same as violence committed against yourself.
Destroying your way of life (house) through your own fear.
Metaphor of storm
What’s the meaning behind the extended metaphor
If you stop fearing the storm then the storm will have no power to destroy you.
Storm is a metaphor for the conflict
Fricatives used- significance
‘So that you listen to the thing you fear
Forgetting that it pummels your house too.’
Fricatives (forming of F where you bear your teeth as a threatening posture) presents anger to get the message across that people aren’t listening to him but there own fears.
‘You might think that the sea is company,’
The ‘sea’ isolates us.
He’s juxtaposing the reality of island being isolated in the sea with the perception of the northern Irish that the conflict is the whole world and is what matters.
But he’s saying that they’re actually isolated from the rest of the world and should change.
‘Exploding -‘
‘Exploding comfortably’
Juxtaposition- oxymoron
Deliberate reference to bombing
People becoming comfortable with bombs- shouldn’t be.
Predicting that the violence is going to get worse and closer to home.
Or
The speaker has made sense of the conflict filled world
Ending, significance.
‘Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.’
Most of the beliefs that catholic and Protestant believe are exactly the same- the one thing they’re holding onto is their different history.
‘Strange’- making reader pause and think, realisation.
Oxymoron ‘huge nothing’
The ‘nothing’ that we fear has a huge impact over us (terrorism and death)
Or ‘huge nothing’ -death
Death is only a huge nothing is you don’t believe in god.
Christianity is the issue.
Strong Christian beliefs are only held strongly because the people that believe them fear the ‘huge nothing’ that is death. Death without a god is intolerable to them.
So they invent the fiction of believing in a god that will save them. The fiction is so strong that it allows them to attack other people that have different beliefs.
Not happy ending- inviting reader to solve the conflict
Idiomatic expression
So this is just everyday to the narrator Sit tight- convocational So, as you see You know what I mean You might think But no:
Weather is weaponised/ warfare imagery significance
Leaves and branches can raise a tragic chorus in a gale- metaphor
Pummels
Blast
Exploding
Links the storm as a metaphor for the war in Ireland
Flung spray hits
Spits like a tame cat turned savage
Bombarded by the empty air
What does the structure and form reflect
Blanc/ free verse
Natural speech
Structure reflects flat houses
Enjambment reflects the constant barrage of nature and nature attacking the island.
Lots of long sentences- overwhelming aspects of nature.
Dramatic monologue- imbalance between the speaker and nature.
One sided- nature doesn’t have a voice- suggests nature doesn’t care about filling narrator with fear.
What do the rhythmic devices represent
Iambic pentameter used reflect the solidity of the houses or the rhythm of the water hitting the windows.
Though the enjambment could reflect that the religious conflict doesn’t have a good reason for happening- both Christian and believe in the same god.
