3. Context: Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney was a poet in Ireland, he grew up in a farming community and many of his poems were about very normal and homely subjects. He uses a large number of agricultural and natural images in his work as metaphors for human nature. The poem is set around a story of a small isolated cottage near the sea in a storm and the exposure to the elements. The suggestion of fear is that power is only there if you let the other thing scare you. Behind his walls and well preparedness, he doesn’t need to feel fear and so the weather (and God) lose power.

4. Storm on the Island – Seamus Heaney
Seamus Heaney was born in Northern Ireland in 1939, the eldest of nine children. His father was a farmer in rural County Derry and much of Heaney's poetry is about the countryside and farm life of his childhood. At the age of 12 Heaney won a scholarship to the boarding school of St Columb's College in the city of Derry, forty miles from his rural home.
The poem describes the experience of being in a cliff top cottage on an island off the coast of Ireland during a storm. Heaney describes the ground, the sea and the wind. The people in the cottage are isolated and can do nothing against the powerful and violent weather.
Heaney describes the violent side of nature which is “savage” and hostile. Heaney uses a series of military metaphors: the wind (like a fighter-bomber) “dives and strafes” while space is a “salvo” and air “bombards” the islanders. Heaney conveys the unpredictability of nature through the simile of a cat - much of the time it is “company” (friendly) and “tame” (safe) but in the storm it turns “savage” and “spits”.

5. What’s happening? Lines What Happens? 1 - 5
Heaney describes how the community prepares for the storm
6 - 13

6. We are prepared: we build our houses squat,
Vocabulary:
‘wizened’ – old and shrivelled. Also experienced.
‘stooks’ - corn sheaves bundled up
The opening statement suggests that the community feels confident and secure. The use of the first person plural creates a sense of communal unity.
The use of monosyllabic words and alliteration reinforce how sturdy,solid and embedded their homes are.
We are prepared: we build our houses squat,
Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate.
The wizened earth has never troubled us
With hay, so, as you see, there are no stacks
Or stooks that can be lost. Nor are there trees
Which might prove company when it blows full
Blast: you know what I mean – leaves and branches
Can raise a tragic chorus in a gale
So that you can listen to the thing you fear
Forgetting that it pummels your house too.
The adjective implies that the landscape is bleak and has been this way for a long time.
The casual style helps the reader imagine their own experience of such situations.
The use of plosive alliteration, the placement of the noun at the beginning of the line, and the colon all help to emphasise the storm’s impact.
This verb underlines the blunt, violent , unrelenting nature of the elements.

7. But there are no trees, no natural shelter.
The repetition of this noun reminds us that we can see Nature as a friend or companion. However, the repeated verb ‘might’ implies that this could be unwise.
The oxymoron reflects the duality of our relationship with nature. We benefit from it but we’re also at the mercy of its power.
But there are no trees, no natural shelter.
You might think that the sea is company,
Exploding comfortably down on the cliffs
But no: when it begins, the flung spray hits
The very windows, spits like a tame cat
Turned savage. We just sit tight while wind dives
And strafes invisibly. Space is a salvo.
We are bombarded by the empty air.
Strange, it is a huge nothing we fear.
By using the conjunction ‘But’ and the present tense, Heaney creates the sense that the storm is not a possibility, it’s a certainty.
The simile shows that the nature’s benign side can be misleading; it can be dangerous and unpredictable if you trust it too much.
The militaristic semantic field emphasises the aggressive, attacking, war-like nature of the storm. This is juxtaposed with the absence of anything tangible (invisibly, space, empty and nothing) to show the wonder and power of nature, and our helplessness when faced with its full force.
Vocabulary:
strafes = to rake with gunfire at close range, usually from the air.
salvo = rapid, simultaneous firing of artillery.

8. Form:
The poem is written in blank verse*, with a frequent use of enjambment and caesurae to reflect the conversational nature of the poem.
The use of the first person plural voice emphasises the sense of collectivity and community.
The poem is one stanza with very similar line lengths to make it appear compact and sturdy, like the island’s houses.
*Blank verse= unrhymed iambic pentameter

9. Language and Structure
‘Storm on the Island’ is full of images of fear & violence.
Although the poem begins with images of safety & security (“we are prepared”) the tone changes from line 6 and a sense of loneliness & fear takes over.
Nature becomes violent as the usually pleasant trees and the sea become frightening & dangerous forces.
To emphasise the violence of the storm Heaney uses descriptive words & phrases usually associated with war such as “blast”, “bombarded”, “salvo”, etc.
To involve the reader in his fear of the storm the poet uses direct address (2nd person) “you” throughout to bring us closer to the experience.

10. Imagery Quote Explanation
Find examples from the poem which suggest that the storm is like an enemy attack.
Quote
Explanation
“It pummels your house”
The word “pummel” means to hit somebody or something with repeated blows, this conveys the image of the house being attacked by an aggressive force.

11. Poetic Techniques Technique Evidence Effect Alliteration
Think about the poetic techniques used in the poem. Copy down the chart below. Find examples in the poem and write down the effect created.
Technique
Evidence
Effect
Alliteration
‘rock and roof’
Repetition of the strong ‘r’ sound emphasises the solidity and sturdiness of the houses.
Personification
Metaphor
Simile

12. Structure
The structure of ‘Storm on the Island’ reflects the feelings of the islanders. At first the community feels safe and secure and words such as ‘prepared’, ‘rock' and ‘good slate' convey this sense of solidity and assurance.
However as the storm begins, feelings of security are eclipsed by fear; the trees raise a ‘tragic chorus’, the sea is ‘exploding’ and there is ‘no natural shelter’.
By the end of the poem the people appear helpless, isolated and at the mercy of the elements, waiting and hoping for the storm to end.
There is a clear contrast between the solid reassurance of the first few lines and the fear of a terrifying invisible force at the end – ‘It is a huge nothing that we fear.’

13. Comparative Themes Which other poems in the anthology
Nature/the World Vs Man
Heaney writes about how nature can be cruel & destructive. The strength of the storm is conveyed through the use of images of war and the people in the poem appear weak & vulnerable. Heaney explores how nature can turn on humans unexpectedly “like a tame cat / Turned savage”.
Which other poems in the anthology
explore the relationship between man &
nature/the world?

14. Comparative Themes
Politics
‘Storm on the Island’ contains a metaphor for the political storm that raged across Northern Ireland in the second half of the twentieth century. The storm pummelling the island in the poem is a metaphor for the violence in Northern Ireland.
What other poems in the anthology explore politics or have metaphorical messages?

15. Storm on the Island – Seamus Heaney
The poem has a message hidden in code.
Did you spot it?
The first 8 letters of the poem spell out the word Stormont – the name of the Government buildings of Northern Ireland in Belfast. The word island also has an obvious phonetic similarity to the word Ireland. Therefore the poem works on two levels: as a description of a storm and as an extended metaphor for the political situation in Northern Ireland.

16. Causes of conflict
Causes for the Conflict between the Protestants and the Catholics of Northern Ireland:
Divided Loyalties
Education
Employment
Housing
Voting Rights

17. Divided loyalties
During the troubles Protestant & Catholics were intolerant of one another. Each gave their allegiance to different countries. Protestants wanted to continue to be part of the United Kingdom whereas Catholics wanted Northern Ireland reunited with the Republic of Ireland. Protestants feared the idea of union with the Republic of Ireland and believed that
Catholics would not be tolerant of Protestant beliefs. Catholics could not forget the persecution they suffered during England’s conquest of Ireland and deeply mistrust the Protestants.