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Storm on the Island
● Context: Seamus Heaney was
a Nobel prize-winning Northern
Irish poet who lived through the
conflict in his homeland
...
The first eight
letters of this poem’s title spell
out the word “Stormont” (see
right) which is the name of
Northern Ireland’s parliament
buildings
...
The short, emphatic statement “We are
prepared” makes the reader feel confident in the narrator and creates a
feeling of safety
...
The sibilant “s” sounds of “squat”,
“sink” and “slate” reinforce the sense of security
...
The
end-stopped line after this phrase also reinforces the feeling of comfort
...
However, in Greek
tragedy a “chorus” is like a narrator, who explains events for the audience
...
This presents the storm as a powerful and almost relentless
force, that takes no mercy on the people it overwhelms
...
Space is a salvo
...
The phrase “we are bombarded by the empty air” is an
oxymoron, however “bombarded” suggests an unforgiving force that is
battering the islanders and their, once sturdy, homes
...
The phrase
“empty air” suggests the invisibility of the storm and how nothing will be left
once it is over
...


Key themes, form and structure

● The use of collective pronouns (particularly in the emphatic first line) show
how the islanders are close and that this is a shared and universal
experience
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g
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● After the volta of “But no”, the descriptions of safety and security are
contrasted with the violent imagery of the storm
...


Exam question
Q) Compare how individual experiences of the power of nature are portrayed in
this poem, and in one other poem that you have studied

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