Storm on the Island Analysis

• Heaney has authored a poem about a community of islanders who are preparing for a storm, investigating the battle of nature vs man
• Seamus Heaney


  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 of 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, using it as a metaphor for human nature
• Storm on the Island is part of a three-poem segment in the collection 'Death of a Naturalist' which was focused on the Aran Islands and how nature shows its power there
• The Aran Islands are used traditionally in Irish poetry as a symbol of Irish culture, and are home to some of Ireland's oldest remains and archaeology
• 'Death of a Naturalist' was Heaney's first collection, and the title is to demonstrate the violence of nature rather than a romanticised view of its beauty
• Dramatic Monologue


  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


  • Technique where the poet uses ten syllables in each line, with pairs of sounds going da-DA with the emphasis on the second syllable. This maintains a constant rhythm which could be argued to reflect a conversational tone
• 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
• Cyclical Structure


  • The half rhyme between the first and last couplet 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
• 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. This creates a tone of violence and aggression
• Colloquialisms


  Heaney uses many conversational tags (typical of Northern Irish speakers) 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. This 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. 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. 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
• Storm On The Island

  Exposure - Both poems show nature as powerfully aggressive, with a constant barrage of attack, and this attack is often inescapable
• Storm On The Island

  Ozymandias - Both poems suggest that the power of nature is greater than the power of humans, and both connect power with isolation