storm on the island Flashcards
‘we are prepared: we build our houses squat, sink walls in rock and roof them with good slate.’
declarative: ‘we are prepared’
↳ arrogant, confident
pronoun: ‘we’
↳ togetherness within the community as well as serving to include the reader in the narrative, making them feel like they are part of it
monosyllabic: ‘sink walls in rock…’
↳ gives an idea of strength and effectiveness of homes
‘this wizened rock has never troubled us’
personfitication: ‘wizened earth’
↳ wizened signifies old age and therefore shoes how people on the island do not fear weaker, older, better understood things
↳ wizened also suggests wisdom & knowledge, which could show how the land which has seen lots
‘leaves and branches can raise a tragic chorus in a gale’
oxymoron: ‘tragic chorus’
↳ the noise made by trees is a comforting distraction, as the islanders aren’t the ones being hit as they listen
↳ emphasises strength of nature, trees themself go through somewhat human suffering during the storm
↳ choruses repeat constantly, the cycle of the storm hitting is inescapable
↳ leaves and branches, features on trees, can bring a chorus (symbolises harmony between nature and man) however, there are no trees on the island, and therefore no opportunity for this chorus to sound, this is further expanded through the use of “raise”, which might express the raising of an idea, this idea of harmony is not possible anymore, perhaps because the islanders have used nature’s materials, such as the trees, for their own purposes
‘forgetting that it pummels your house too.’
powerful verb: ‘pummels’
↳ though the people built their houses strong, nature is still more powerful, they’re demise is inevitable, there is no point to theirs struggle
direct address: ‘your’
↳ emphasises how the effects of nature reach everyone
‘exploding comfortably’
oxymoron
↳ effortlessly powerful and intimidatingly so
↳ the islanders thought that they had tamed nature.
‘spits like a tame cate turned savage’
simile: ‘like a tame cat’
↳ like shows that the change that occurs isn’t permanent, nature & weather is constantly changeable
↳ the islanders will never truly understand or have control over the weather, it is stronger than them, no matter if they think they have tamed it
↳ up until this point, the speaker only described what they imagined the storm to be like, however the reality is not as violent, shows that the true chaos lives in the mind of humans
zoomorphism: ‘tame cat turned…’
↳ compares nature to an animal that can be both domestic and wild, to convey that nature can be both kind and healing but contrastingly inflict suffering and release chaos
‘we just sit tight while wind dives and strafes invisibly. space is a salvo.
metaphor: ‘wind dives and strafes’
↳ the wind is described as a fighter plane, emphasises violence and danger caused by nature, equal to danger caused in a war
↳ the fact that this occurs invisibly suggests that the islanders are bothered by nothing, questions the authenticity of the troubles as a true war
juxtaposition between natures fluid spontaneity and humanity’s rigidity:
‘sit tight’ vs ‘dives’ and ‘strafes’
↳ nature is indifferent to humans, it’s purpose isn’t to frighten them, however humans constantly see nature as a huge threat
paradox: ‘space is a salvo’
↳ space is a vacuum and suggests an absence of attack, any conflict is mental
‘we are bombarded by the empty air strange, it is a huge nothing we fear’
metaphor + juxtaposition: ‘we are…’
↳ nature is difficult to understand, bombarded suggests a continuous flow of attacks while empty suggests the opposite, containing nothing when something could or should be present, this lack of a true target shows that there is no valid foundation for the attacks
caesura:
↳ the pause after strange emphasises the fact that the fear of the islanders is difficult to explain, they are prepared but still fear nothing, nature is completely in power and is impossible to control
oxymoron: ‘huge nothing’
↳ we make problems larger than they are
↳ the islanders must accept that nature has always and will always be unpredictable, they cannot tame nature, they must adapt to eachother (perhaps related to how in the troubles, heaney believed that they should’ve made peace and adapted to one another rather than fighting
half-rhyme: ‘air’ and ‘fear’
↳ indicates bluriness between perception and truth, words sound similar but are different, eg: what seems threatening (nature) may be less scary than what we think
meaning of the title:
stormont = northern island’s parliament
context:
-born in northern island as a catholic & moved to the republic
-grew up in a rural area
-wrote about natural imagery as a reflection of human nature
form:
dramatic monologue
↳ reflects position of islanders
structure:
no consistent rhyme scheme:
↳ nature has no order & humans must not force an order on nature
enjambment:
↳ constant barrage of storm
who wrote storm on the island?
seamus heaney
