English Lit - Storm on the Island

• Storm on the Island

  Poem by Seamus Heaney set in the Aran Islands, a group of three islands on the west coast of Ireland
• Narrator

  • Describes how well prepared he and others are for a coming storm
• Houses are built short and wide to withstand the powerful wind
• Firm foundations and strong roofs have been built
• There is no threat of losing crops as the earth is too dry to farm
• There are no trees on the island
• If there had been trees

  They would have kept the island company during the storm due to the sounds made as the wind blasts through branches and leaves
• As the storm begins, the narrator's confidence starts to disappear and they become more desperate and afraid
• Seamus Heaney

  • Northern Irish poet, playwright and translator, born in 1939 and died in 2013
• Heaney's early poetry, including Storm on the Island

  • Often focused on rural life and matters of identity and ancestry
• Storm on the Island

  • Can be viewed as a poem about the uncontrollable power of nature
• Heaney's use of language and structure

  1. Presents the power of nature

  2. One continuous stanza with long, complex sentences

  3. Lack of stanza breaks and long sentences symbolize the overwhelming power of nature

  4. Enjambment where a sentence runs over into separate lines creates a constant barrage of information reflecting the constant barrage of the storm
• Heaney's use of language of conflict

  Represents the power of nature (e.g. blasts, pummels, exploding, bombarded, strafes, salvo)
• The language of conflict points to a secondary meaning of the poem, which is about the conflict in Ireland
• Heaney's use of everyday language

  Creates a contrast with the language of conflict, suggesting this is everyday life to the narrator
• Oxymoron "exploding comfortably"


  Reflects how the speaker has made sense of the storm-filled world they live in
• The poem contains very little rhyme, reflecting the uncontrollable nature of the storm
• Half rhyme in the opening and closing couplets

  Symbolizes how the wild storm refuses order and control
• The use of half rhyme at the start and end gives the poem a cyclical structure, creating a sense that the storm is inescapable and will continue to occur
• The poem can also be read as a poem about the conflict in Ireland