Storm on the island - Seamus Heaney

• Contexts

  • lived from 1939-2013 in a northern Irish catholic family and often wrote about personal, local experience in youth
  • 2nd most acclaimed Irish poet
  • No specific geographical or historical context to imbue it with universality
  • In a collection called “death of a naturalist“ looking at the Aran islands and the power nature has over them
  • Within Irish poetry they are a symbolism or Irish culture
  • This collection dismantles the romanticisation of the natural beauty and instead explores the potential violence of nature
  • And conceit for the tumultuous political system in Northern Ireland
• Mankind vs nature - “ leaves and branches can raise a tragic chorus in a gale”


  • hints at nature consciously tormenting man
  • In Greek tragedies a ”chorus“ would give a commentary
  • The absence of the trees in this case decides isolation of the islanders left to fight and interpret the storm alone
• mankind vs nature - “spits like a tame cat turned savage”


  • personification shifts to zoomorphism
  • Highlights how deceptive nature can be with its apparent beauty and innocence when In fact it has capabilities for violence and brutality
  • Juxtaposition of “tame” and “savage” portrays mercurial nature of the storm
  • The alliterative “t” sound mimics sounds of water hitting the islanders home
  • Poet plays on the readers senses to immerse them within the storm and convey how overwhelming it is
• Conflict and violence - title


  • title itself is an allusion to “stormont“ the government building in Northern Ireland
  • Suggestion that laced beneath natural imagery there are political undertones
• Conflict and violence- semantic field

  • semantic field of battle
  • “Pummels“ “exploded” “bombarded”
  • A lexis relating to military violence could indicate it’s more political than initially expected
  • could be writing about the fear the overwhelms a community when violence is on the horizon
• form - metaphor

  • the single stanza Is a metaphor for the way the islanders huddle together in unity in preparation for the storm
  • Similarly they built their “houses squat” to maximise protection against the merciless elements
• Form- blank verse


  • makes poem seem conversational which is mirrored by the colloquialisms
  • Presents experience of storm as casual and regular
• Form - lack of stanzas


  • denies the reader and respite or pause to uphold a level of tension throughout the poem
• structure- cyclical structure 


  • portrays the storm as inescapable and repetitive
  • Stuck in a perpetual cycle of preparation, waiting and recovery
  • In line 14, tone shift from optimistic confidence and preparation to defeat against the aggressive brutality of the storm
• Structure - no rhyme

  • first and final couplet has a slanted rhyme - “squat/slate” “air/fear”
  • Creates an unsettling tone and denies the reader of a full rhyme
  • Suspends them within the same aspin of waiting that the islanders operate in when expecting a storm
  • builds an overwhelming sense of apprehension
• structure - volta and enjambment

  • enjambment allows lines to physically overflow which portrays the constant barrage or the storm as the poet bombards the reader with information