Storm On The Island by Seamus Heaney Flashcards
1
Q
Content, meaning and purpose
A
- The narrator describes how a rural island community prepared for a coming storm, and how they were confident in their preparations.
- When the storm hits, they are shocked by its power: it’s violent sights and sounds are described, using the metaphor of war
- The final line of the poem reveals their fear of nature’s power
2
Q
Context
A
- Seamus Heaney was Northern Irish, he died in 2013
- This poem was published in 1966 at the start of ‘The Troubles’ in Northern Island: a period of deep unrest and violence between those who wanted to remain in the UK and those who wanted to become part of Ireland
- The first 8 letters of the tittle spell ‘Stormont’: this is the name of Northern Ireland’s parliament. The poem might be a metaphor for the political storm that was building in the country at the time.
3
Q
Language
A
- ‘Nor are these trees which might prove company’: the island is a lonely, barren place.
- Violent verbs are used to describe the storm: ‘pummels’, ‘exploding, ‘spits’.
- Semantic field of war: ‘Exploding comfortably’ (also an oxymoron to contrast fear/safety); ‘wind dives and strafes invisibly’ (the wind is a fighter plane); ‘We are bombarded by the empty air’ (under ceaseless attack)
- This also reinforces the metaphor of war/ troubles
- “spits like a tame cat turned savage” similes compared the nature to an animal that has turned on its owner
4
Q
Form and structure
A
-Written in blank verse and with lots of enjambment: this creates a controversial and anecdotal tone.
-‘We’ (first person plural) creates a sense of community, and ‘you’ (direct address) makes the reader feel immersed in the experience.
-The poem can split into 3 sections
Confidence-‘We are prepared’(ironic)
The violence of the storm-‘It pummels your house’
Fear-‘It’s a huge nothing that we fear’
-There is a turning point (a Volta) in line 14 ‘But no’
This monosyllabic phrase, the caesura, reflects the final calm before the storm
