Storm on the Island

• Storm on the Island

  Poem by Seamus Heaney
• Themes

  • Power of Nature
  • Fear
• Content, Meaning and Purpose

  1. The narrator describes how a rural island community prepared for a coming storm, and how they were confident in their preparations

  2. When the storm hits, they are shocked by its power: its violent sights and sounds are described, using the metaphor of war

  3. The final line of the poem reveals their fear of nature's power
• Form and Structure

  • Written in blank verse and with lots of enjambment: this creates a conversational and anecdotal tone
  • We (first person plural) creates a sense of community, and You (direct address) makes the reader feel immersed in the experience
  • The poem can split into three sections: Confidence, The violence of the storm, Fear
  • There is a turning point (a volta) in Line 14: 'But no:'
• The Island

  Poem by Seamus Heaney
• Language


  • Lack of trees suggests the island is a lonely, barren place
  • Violent verbs used to describe the storm: 'pummels', 'exploding', 'spits'
  • Semantic field of war: 'Exploding comfortably', 'wind dives and strafes invisibly', 'We are bombarded by the empty air'
  • Simile compares the nature to an animal that has turned on its owner: 'spits like a tame cat turned savage'
• Tones of the poem

  • Dark
  • Violent
  • Anecdotal
• Seamus Heaney died

  2013
• Poem was published

  1966
• The first eight letters of the title

  Spell 'Stormont', the name of Northern Ireland's parliament
• The poem might be a metaphor for the political storm that was building in the country at the time