storm on the island

• context


  One of the most acclaimed Irish poets

  raised in Northern Ireland within a Catholic household
• spits like a tame cat turned savage


  throughout the poem, it shifts to zoomorphism. This could highlight how nature could be deceptive with its apparent beauty or innocence but in fact has the capacity for violence and brutality. The juxtaposition of “tame” and “savage” is used to portray the mercurial nature of the storm.
• conflict and violence


  The title is an allusion to “Stormont” the government building of Northern Ireland. This is a suggestion that laced beneath the natural imagery of the poem there are political undertones.

  There is a semantic field of battle created through “pummels”, “exploded”, “salvo”, and “bombarded”. A lexis relating to military violence could indicate that it is more political than we might initially expect. Heaney could be writing about the fear that overwhelms a community when violence is on the horizon, like an incoming storm.
• Form


  Single stanza, metaphor for the way the islanders huddle together, in preparation for the storm. Lack of stanzas denies the reader any respite or pause to uphold the same level of tension throughout the whole poem.

  Blank verse: conversational tone, this presents the experience of a storm as casual and regular; the people are also accustomed to the feeling of fear that it is becoming every day occurrence
• Structure


  cyclical - betrayed the storm as inescapable and repetitive, they are stuck in a perpetual cycle of preparation, waiting and recovery

  volta - There is a volta in line 14 as the tone shift from optimistic confidence and preparation to a defeat against the aggressive brutality of the storm
• Comparisons


  Prelude and exposure