Storm on the Island

• The narrator of the poem describes how well prepared he and others are for a coming storm
• Preparation for the storm

  1. Built houses short and wide to withstand the powerful wind

  2. Laid firm foundations and built strong roofs
• No threat of losing crops because the earth is so dry that they've never been able to farm in the first place
• No trees on the island
• If there had been trees

  They would have kept the island as company during the storm because of the sounds made as the wind blasts through branches and leaves
• As the storm begins, the narrator becomes more desperate and afraid
• One way to view Storm on the Island is as a poem about the uncontrollable power of nature
• Language and structure used by Heaney to present the power of nature


  • Consists of one continuous stanza made up of many long and complex sentences
  • Lack of stanza breaks and long sentences symbolize the overwhelming power of nature
  • Enjambment used where the sentence is run over into separate lines
  • Use of argument like the use of one long stanza creates a constant barrage of information reflecting the constant barrage of the storm on the house
• Language of conflict used by Heaney to represent the power of nature


  • Words like blasts, pummels, exploding, bombarded, strafes, and salvo used to describe the storm as dangerous and threatening
• Use of oxymoron

  • Exploding comfortably reflects how the speaker has made sense of the storm-filled world he lives in
• Rhyme scheme in the poem

  • Contains very little rhyme, lack of control reflecting the uncontrollable storm
• Half rhyme in the poem

  • squat, slate
  • air, fear
• Use of half rhyme


  • Symbolizes how the wild storm refuses order and control, representing the chaos
• Rhyme pattern in the poem

  The poem ends as it begins with a half rhyme, creating a sense that the storm is inescapable and will continue to occur time and time again
• Storm on the Island can be read as a poem about the conflict in Ireland
• Other poems to compare Storm on the Island with

  • Extract from The Prelude, Kamikaze, Exposure