storm on the island

• Storm on the Island was written by the Irish poet Seamus Heaney and it was published in 1966. It describes a desolate island landscape lived on by a group of resourceful individuals who must protect themselves from a storm. It can also be interpreted as an allegory for political tensions in Northern Ireland, commonly referred to as "The Troubles", where the islanders can be understood to represent the Irish people and the storm represents oppressive British rule, and the brutality of war and conflict in general. The main themes of this poem are therefore based on both its literal meaning in the power of nature, and in its allegorical meaning of physical and political conflict.
• This poem is about a community of islanders who are preparing for a storm, investigating the battle of nature vs man. It centres on their experience of the storm, and how they appear to get them regularly, and then how this impacts life on the island as they wait inside for it to pass.
• Heaney is a Northern Irish poet who was born in Northern Ireland but Catholic and moved to the Republic (nationalist). He wrote mostly about the landscape and rural life or Ireland, and grew up in a village as part of a farming community, leading to most poems about normal rural life. His early poems focused on ancestry, identity and nature, with nature as a metaphor for human nature, using it to explore identity.
• "We are prepared: we build our houses squat,"


  Arrogance in the declarative "we are prepared" - too confident, shown by how bold and declarative, they are confident in their ability to overpower nature. BUT also betrays their fear - they have completely adapted their lives to the purpose of resisting nature. The poet starts by using the inclusive pronoun "we", indicating that this poem is about community and togetherness. The caesura in the first line suggests they are prepared to stop the coming storm. The way that the houses are built suggests storms are regular, and they survive them through their collective strength.
• "Sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate."


  The use of alliteration, such as "rock and roof", reinforces how solid the structures are. This acts as a strong opening statement, that creates a feeling of safety and strength. This weather has conditioned their lives to the extent that it influences their artchitecture and farming methods. The islander's house have been built 'squat', with walls sunk into 'rock' to give them added strength and resillience. The roofs are made of 'good slate', a phrase suggesting that natural materials are used to withstand the natural phenomena of as torm. Indeed, the end-stopping forces the reader to dwell on the feeling of safety/solidity.
• What does Storm on the Island compare well with?

  'The Prelude' - Power of Nature

  'Exposure' - Conflict with Nature
• Analysis of Title

  The title is blunt and explicit. Yet because there is no article before the title, there is a sense that Heaney is not writing about one storm in particular, but about many similar storms. Northern Ireland has had a violent and troubled history, and the first eight letters of the poem's title read 'Stormont', the seat of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Perhaps in this sense the 'storm' to which Heaney is referring is the metaphorical one that has, for years, brewed in Northern Ireland during the Troubles, a violent thirty-year conflict. At the heart of the conflict lay the constitutional status of Northern Ireland. Perhaps Heaney is using the title as a metaphor for the conflict between the two religious groups in his home country.
• Analysis of Title

  More obviously, however, is the 'storm' between man and Nature that is intimated by the title. The reference to an 'island' denotes ideas of isolation, detachment, or of being surrounded in some way, a clear decision by Heaney to emphasise both the segregating qualities of Nature and its destructive power, but also as a reminder of man's fallibility and how we are ultimately powerless to the destructive force of Nature.
• "This wizened earth has never troubled us /

  With hay, so, as you see, there are no stacks /

  Or stooks that can be lost."


  The earth is "wizened", meaning shrivelled with old age; it is a barren, hostile environment. "Wizened earth" also connotes wisdom and respect. "No stacks or stooks that can be lost", highlights that there is no way to judge damages. Heaney relies on conversational colloquialisms to connect the reality of the islander's lives to the readers. Heaney uses irony as the island has never troubled islanders with hay, but hay would be useful to them. It seems that the island doesn't produce anything useful. The speakers mention that the earth has never "troubled" them to foreshadow the coming dangers. This can also be interpreted as an allegory for the tensions in Northern Ireland.
• "Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear"


  The last line does not mirror the opening sentence at all, but it does express a similar confidence and a sense of community; 'Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear.' suggests that what they are frightened of is nothing given the thoroughness of their preparations. Heaney is suggesting that whilst the islanders have no control over the storm itself, they can control the effects it has on the island; by making the right preparations and by sitting tight through the storm, they negate its power over them, and demonstrate their own power to survive. Ultimately, Heaney is trying to show that what many of us fear are harmless, 'a big nothing'.
• "blows full blast"


  Plosives give sense of violence and aggression, and suggests nature is attacking the island - the plosives also resemble bullets - shows weather is as deadly as a weapon.
• “So that you can listen to the thing you fear Forgetting that it pummels your house too.”


  In order to demonstrate the sheer power of nature throughout the poem, Heaney chooses to personify several aspects of storm. For example, the speaker shares that the storm ‘pummels’ the houses – presenting the storm as some kind of fighter or bully. Later on in the poem, the sea is personified as it is presented that it ‘spits like a tame cat turned savage’ – also using a simile to demonstrate that all of nature appears to be against them.
• “Turned savage. We just sit tight while wind dives And strafes invisibly. Space is a salvo.”


  Heaney uses a wide variety of interesting vocabulary choices to show the power and effect of the storm. Many of these words have meanings within the semantic field of warfare, for example: strafes, salvo, bombarded, exploding, shelter, and company. All of this combines to create vivid sight and sound imagery that is befitting both the scene of the storm and a warzone.
• “Which might prove company when it blows full Blast: you know what I mean - leaves and branches”


  Heaney employs enjambment and caesura to break up and fragment the poem in some places, and to build it to a crescendo in others. This creates an uneven rhythm, rather like the storm itself. The enjambment picks up the rhythm, which them hits an abrupt stop at each moment of caesura – granting power to hard monosyllabic words such as ‘blast’ and ‘lost.’
• The poem is written in one solid block of 19 unrhymed lines, ending with a half-rhyming couplet. Each line of the blank verse contains ten or eleven syllables, following the natural pattern of English so that the reader feels as though Heaney is talking to them. The form itself mirrors the houses, squat and solid, bearing the brunt of the storm. It also presents the storm as one single event.
• Heaney uses mostly iambic pentameter, this maintains a constant rhythm as the speaker is acting as a spokesperson for the islanders, maintaining a conversational tone. However, the regularity of the meter can also make the poem feel tense, as though the speaker cannot fully relax knowing what is coming. However, there are breaks in iambic pentameter, such as the line which starts with "Blast", these breaks can convey the strength, violence and wildness of the storm. The poem does not use a consistent rhyme scheme. This suggests that order cannot be enforced upon nature and humans have no way to control it.
• "spits like a tame cat turned savage"


  Mistaken belief they had tamed nature - then the cats turn against its owner. Replicates how the islanders never owned nature - it was always more powerful than them. Split the tamed and known nature before from the violent aggresive storm. Even domesticated nature now seems to be against the islanders, as in the simile used to compare the sea and the tame cat ‘turned savage.’ The cat, much like the weather, turns from tame to savage
• Dramatic Monologue


  • The Aran islands are seen traditionally in Irish poetry as a symbol of culture as they are known for ancient sites such as the remains of forts. This exposes their isolation.
  • Through setting his poem here Heaney is using the poem as an autobiography of irish culture. This is demonstrated by his depiction of a collective experience of an island by using the pronoun "we".
  • The dramatic monologue structure means the poem is like a one way conversation which reflects the position of the islanders who have no one to help during the storm because they are isolated and alone.
• Iambic Pentameter


  By using Iambic Pentameter, the poem is maintaining a constant rhythm which could be argued to reflect a conversational tone. This is alongside conversational tags such as "you might think", "but no" and "you know what I mean" which helps the reader to feel involved and engaged. This concept reflects that only as a community can the storm be endured.
• Rhyme Scheme

  • There is no consistent rhyme scheme, which reflects how order cannot be enforced upon nature, it is more powerful than humans, so humans have no way to control it. The lack of rhyme scheme relates to the omnipotence of nature. This contrasts with the very controlled rhythm, which works to show human power resisting power and chaos of a storm.
  • There is some half rhyme which shows that nature only allows for partial organisation, and also that humans can only ever partially control and tame nature.
• Cyclical Structure

  • The half rhyme between the first and last couplet ["houses squat / good slate" and "the empty air / huge nothing that we fear"] creates a cyclical structure that connects the preparation for the storm at the start, to the fear of the storm's power at the end.
  • The cyclical nature of the poem shows the resilience of the islanders. Storms will come again and again, and they have to learn to live with them and endure it: the cycle of preparation, storm and recovery is never ending. However, due to the fundamental insufficiency of human power, no matter what humans do there is always the possibility that nature will destroy it because nature's power is greater.
• Volta

  The poem begins optimistically but the tone shifts to one of fear. This shift could reflect the final calm before a storm, and also the inability for the islanders to prepare for it properly because they cannot see it coming.
• Enjambement

  The lines overflow which implies the constant barrage of information or alternatively the constant barrage of the storm. This is reflected in the arrangement of the poem into one single stanza, as it mirrors the overwhelming power of storms. The reader becomes overwhelmed by the size of the poem and the breathlessness created from the enjambment replicates the panicked feeling of the islanders as they are faced with the storm.
• Semantic field of military language and violence

  Nature is referred to in military terms throughout the poem. For example, the air "strafes" and "salvos". By comparing the storm to a military plane Heaney shows the speaker that the islanders are under attack from nature. This creates a tone of violence and aggression. The excessive use of plosives such "blows full blast" could be reflective of bullets.
• Colloquialisms

  Heaney also uses many conversational tags (typical of Northern Irish speakers) - "you might think", "but no", "you know what I mean" - which draw the reader in and include them in the poem. This may suggest that everyone can experience the impact of nature.
• Similes

  Heaney uses similes such as "spits like a tame cat//turned savage". This seems oxymoronic because a tame cat shouldn't be aggressive. If the cat is a simile for nature, Heaney is suggesting nature has a tame and docile side so it is not always like this.
• Personification

  Heaney personifies nature by making it seem like it intends to attack the island. For example, it "pummels" and the island is "bombarded by" which implies that the storm has a malicious intent to harm and damage.
• Focus on natural language

  Heaney suggests throughout his poem that the power of nature is unknown and the islanders have no indicators of the storm's power. The line "no stacks or stooks that can be lost" shows that there's no way to judge damage. Here, the poet is commenting on the tragedy and devastation of the storm. This could also reflect the political storm in the form of the Northern Irish troubles.
• Isolation vs Community

  The contrast between the unification of a community and the isolation of the island is heightened by the structure of the poem. As the poem is written in dramatic monologue there is no reply to the speaker which emphasises the isolation of the islanders. On the other hand, it is written in collective voice (first person plural) which shows the islanders are speaking as a community: they are all united community against a common threat, yet isolated by their individual fears. The contrast between the two perspectives increases the tension for the reader.
• • The informal tone of the poem suggests that the islanders have become used to the storm and that part of life on the island is enduring nature. The storm doesn't earn any special occasion, it is a regular occurrence.
  • There are repeated references to nature as company such as trees "might prove company" and "sea is company" - however both these references are proved wrong.
  • Heaney also implies that nature has betrayed them. In the line "tame cat turned savage" the cat has betrayed its owner by turning from its usual docility to an unknown and wild cat which intends to cause harm.