KEY KNOWLEDGE + COMPARISONS

• SIMILARITIES TO THE PRELUDE - theme

  1. both discuss the power of nature over man
  2. they portray nature as a force which can incite fear in mankind
• DIFFERENCES TO THE PRELUDE - theme

  1. the prelude is far more abstract and spiritual in its explanation of natures power seeming almost omnipotent (impact of nature is psychological)
  2. SOTI is physical with the bombardment of the weather
• SIMILARITIES TO THE PRELUDE - form

  1. both are a single stanza in blank verse, denying the reader any form of pause making nature seem overwhelming and elicits a sense of breathlessness
• DIFFERENCES TO THE PRELUDE - form

  1. the prelude is an extract from an epic poem, it is longer than storm on the island
• SIMILARITIES TO THE PRELUDE - structure

  1. both poets incorporate enjambment to overwhelm the reader and allow them to emphasise with how the speakers were bombarded and overpowered by nature
• SIMILARITIES TO THE PRELUDE - context

  1. both poets wrote in response to societal events
• DIFFERENCE TO THE PRELUDE - context

  1. Wordsworth was driven to write in protest of the industrial revolution and the way man was taking over nature
  2. Heaney was writing about social turmoil instead of industrial change, his was inspired by a more tangible conflict and explicit violence
• SIMILARITIES TO EXPOSURE - theme

  1. both discuss the power of nature and consider the conflict between mankind and the natural world
  2. they both utilise pathetic fallacy to depict the suffering of humanity and the natural world
  3. in both poems, nature is personified imbuing it with power and consciousness
• DIFFERENCES TO EXPOSURE - theme

  1. in Exposure soldiers are comparatively defenceless against the elements versus Storm On the Island where the civilians prepare for it
  2. for Heaney it is a metaphor for a fear-stricken society that must live through a period of civil and political unrest ( the approaching storm is an extended metaphor for looming violence )
  3. for Owen it could be a metaphor for how every aspect of life, even nature, was taken over by a destructive madness
• SIMILARITIES TO EXPOSURE - form

  1. both are written in a present tense narractibe and incorporate a 1st person collective voice
• DIFFERENCE TO EXPOSURE - form

  1. Exposure is broken into regular stanzas of equal lengths (5 lines) reinforacing the repetitive and monotonous experience of soldiers in the trenches
  2. Storm On the Island is a single stanza to depict the isolation barrage by a storm
• SIMILARITIES TO EXPOSURE - structure

  1. both poems incorporate discomforting slant rhymes to unsettle the reader and make the battle of man and nature seem anything but harmonious
• SIMILARITIES TO EXPOSURE - context

  1. both poets use their poems to share the experience of people who lived though conflict - both inspired by their own lives and the political events that occurred throughout their lifetime
• DIFFERENCES TO EXPOSURE - context

  1. Owen was a post who fought and died in WW1
  2. Heaney had no personal involvement in the “low-level war” that was the Irish troubles, yet he did live through a period of civil unrest
• FORM - single stanza

  • single 19 line stanza is a metaphor for the way islanders huddle together for the storm similarly they build their "houses squat" to maximize their protection against the elements
  • lack of stanzas denies the reader any respire or pause to uphold the same level of tension throughout the whole poem
• FORM - blank verse

  • makes the poem sound conversational (mirrored by the colloquialisms) this presents the experience of a storm as casual and regular;the people are accustomed to the feeling of fear it has become and everyday occurrence
• STRUCTURE - slant rhyme

  • poem generally doesnt rhyme; however the first and final couplet has a slant rhyme of "squat/slate" and "air/fear" which is unsettling
  • denies the reader of a full rhyme which makes them, alike to the islanders, expect a storm whilst feeling intense apprehension
• STRUCTURE - cyclical structure

  • portrays the storm as inescapable and repetitive - they are stuck in a perpetual cycle of preparation, waiting and recovering
• STRUCTURE - volta

  • change in 14th line as the tone shifts from optimistic confidence and preparation to a defeat against aggressive brutality of the storm