Analysis of Storm on the Island by Seamus Heaney

Analysis of Storm on the Island by Seamus Heaney

1. Vocabulary

   • squat - low level
   • wizened - old, shrivelled or experienced
   • stooks - corn sheaves bunched up
   • pummels - violent, painful, punches
   • salvo - rapid simultaneous firing of artillery

2. Poetic Techniques

   • Caesura (middle of a sentence :) - forces reader to stop and think about what you've read
   • Simile - 'spits like a tame cat'
   • End stop - at the end of a line, makes the reader stop and think
   • Enjambment
   • Conversational style - draws you in
   • Uses 3rd person (we) - makes it a collective experience
   • Uses 2nd person (you) - talks to you as a person, engages you
   • Assonance - roof, good
     • emphasises people's link to nature/land/growing food
   • Alliteration - stacks/stooks
   • Oxymoron - exploding comfortably
   • Violent words lines 16-19 - hits, spits, savage, strafes, salvo, bombarded

3. The poem is written in blank verse

   • No rhyming pattern
     • Lack of rhyme - conflict, the storm of Irish troubles
   • Follows iambic penameter
     • Line 2 stressed words give impression of home/building/foundations
     • Heartbeat rhythm - his homeland?

4. Interpretation of the poem

   • Natural power - the elements
     • Last line - there's nothing they can do, nature has all the power
   • Fear and isolation
   • Man's relationship with nature
   • Metaphor for the 'troubles' in Ireland
     • First part of the title spell Stormont - name of the Irish Parliament
       • Title has no article (the or a) - open to interpretation