Storm on the island Flashcards
How does the title link to the poem?
The poem is based on Anglo-Irish political tensions, the actual title [Storm on t]he island spells out Stormont a government building in Ireland
What is the summary of the poem?
It is a dramatic monologue from the perspective of an villager on a remote island, probably in the Irish Atlantic, about the storms his community face and their effects
Why does Heaney repetition of collective pronouns?
Suggests there is an army of people ready to protect their island. It is almost directed at the reader showing us that they have nothing to lose. It is more so directed to their enemy the ‘storm’
What quotes show the loss of nature?
-“wizened earth has never troubled us”
-“Nor are there trees”
-“leaves and branches can raise a tragic chorus in gale”
-“there are no trees, no natural shelter”
suggesting all natural firsts lines of defences have been taken away leaving a baron war zone
what quotes does use semantic field of war?
-“which might prove company when it blows full blast”
-“listen to the thing you fear forgetting that it pummels your house too”
-“you might think the sea is company, Exploding comfortably”
this suggests that even with the use of collective pronouns nature has left the narrator alone within the storm, isolated on an island
How does Seamus Heaney structure the poem?
This poem is in blank verse, the lines are usually enjambed, the sentences do not stop with the lines but the occasional line contains a full sentence, like the last, which gives a strong indication of reaching the end of the speaker’s pondering
