Storm on the island

• “spits like a tame cat turned savage”
• “we are prepared: we build our houses squat”
• “this wizened earth has never troubled us”
• leaves and branches can raise a tragic chorus in a gale
• forgetting that it pummels your house too
• “strange it is a huge nothing we fear”
• we are prepared: we build our houses squat

  • too confident in the declarative- feel that they can overpower nature which shows arrogance
  • they have adapted their lives to resisting nature
  • 'we' collective voice- they are together as a community fighting this threat but they are isolated by their fears.
• informal tone

  suggests islanders have become used to the threat of nature, it is part of their life enduring it: the storm is a regular occurance.
• cyclical structure- half rhyme between first and last rhyming couplet houses squat/ good slate empty air/huge nothing that we fear'

  • connects preperation and their fear
• The poem uses personification to suggest that nature has power over humans. The wind is described as having its own will and being able to destroy human structures. This highlights the idea that nature cannot be controlled or tamed by humans.
• Respects nature
• Understands that nature is something of great power that they have no real defence to but they can still try
• “Bombarded by empty air”
• “Huge nothing we fear”

  • oxymoron

  •paradox of the winds power and result but not the wind itself
• See there island as an ally
• We are prepared

  Ironic and arrogant

  Confident against the power of nature
• Huge nothing we fear

  Paradox

  Power of nature

  See the effects not the force
• Spits liek a tamed cat turned savage

  Threatening

  Mistake nature to be calm