QUOTES
Cards (7)
- "leaves and branches can raise a tragic chorus in a gale"
- personifying metaphor hints at nature consciously tormenting man
- personification is used to imbue nature with enough power to compete with man
- in a Greek tragedy a "chorus" would give commentary on and explain events - absence of tress depicts the isolation of the islanders who are left alone to fight and interpret the storm
- in the midst of a storm, insignificant parts of nature can come together to create a powerful and evocative chorus
- "you might think" "but no" "you know what i mean"
- colloquialisms - conversational tags (typical of Northern Irish speakers)
- draws the reader in and includes them in the poem
- suggests everyone can experience the impact of nature
- "spits like a tame cat turned savage"
- zoomorphism
- personification shifts to zoomorphism
- highlights how nature could be deceptive with its apparent beauty or innocence but has the capacity for violence and brutality
- juxtaposition of "tame" and "savage" portray the mercurial nature of the storm
- "company"
- sense of betrayal by nature
- repetition of noun "company" to establish the myth that nature is man-kinds friend
- confutes this suggestion that the typically celebrated beauty of nature can be misleading
- "storm on the island"
- title itself is an illusion to "stormont" the government building of Northern Ireland suggesting there are political undertones laced beneath the natural imagery of the poem
- "pummels" "exploded" "salvo" "bombarded"
- lexis relating military violence
- indicates there are more political undertones than we might initially expect
- semantic field of battle
- Heaney could be writing about the fear that overwhelms a community when violence is on the horizon like an incoming storm
- "you might think" "but no" "you know what I mean"
- colloquialisms - conversational tags (typical of Northern Irish speakers)
- draws the reader in and includes them in the poem
- suggests everyone can experience the impact of nature