Storm On The Island

• Key Context:

  The power of nature and how men are powerless in face of the storm, no matter how prepared they think they are
• Context:

  Heaney was a protestant living in Dublin (heavily catholic). The poem can be seen as a metaphor for the Troubles in Ireland (Stormont).
• "We are prepared: we build our houses squat"
• (The sea) "spits like a tame cat turned savage"
• "We are bombarded by the empty air. Strange, it is a huge nothing that we fear."