Storm on the Island Flashcards
Perspective
• Dramatic monologue: poem is written like a one way conversation. Refletcs the position of the islanders because they can’t get any help.
Language
• Semantic field of military language: “strafes” and “salvos”. By comparing the storm to a military plane, it shows the speaker that the islanders are under attack from nature.
• Plosives: “blows full blast” could be reflective of bullets
• Colloquialisms: “you might think”, “you know what i mean”. Draws the reader in and includes them in the poem, could suggest that everyone can experience the impact of nature
• Similies: “pummels” and “bonbarded by”. Nature is personified. Implies that the storm has a malicious intent to harm and damage.
Form
• Dramatic monologue. No reply to the speaker which emphasises the isolation of the islanders.
• Written in collective voice (first person plural). Shows that the islanders are speaking as a community. Are all united community against a threat, yet isolated by their individual fears
Structure
• Iambic pentameter. Poem is mainting a constant rhythm. Could be argued that it is used to reflect a conversational tone.
• No consistent rhyme scheme. Reflects how order cannot be enforced upon nature, it is more powerful than humans so humans can’t control it. Lack of rhyme scheme contrasts with controlled rhythm. Works to show human power resisting power and chaos of a storm.
• Cyclical structure. Half rhyme between first and last couplet [“houses squat/good slate” and “the empty air/huge nothing that we fear”]. Cyclical nature shows the resilience of the islanders. Cycle of preperation, storm and recovery is never ending.
• Volta. Poem begins optimistically but tone shifts to fear. This could reflect the final calm before a storm. Also the inability for the islanders to prepare for it properly.
• Enjambement. Lines overdlowing implies the constant barrage of information or constant barrage of the storm. Reflected in the arrangement of the poem into one single stanza, reader becomes overwhelmed by the size of the poem and breathlessness created from the enjambment. Replicates the panicked feeling of the islanders as they are faced with the storm.
Similarities between Storm on the Island & Ozymandias
• Both poems suggest power of nature is greater than power of humans. Shown in Ozymandias when nature takens over the stature through the symbolism of the desert. Shown in SOTI how nature is attacking the islanders.
• Both connect power with isolation. In Ozymandias, isolation of the statue is to show loss of power. In SOTI, isolation of the island during and due to the storm.
Similarities between SOTI & The Prelude
• Both show nature as powerful. In SOTI, it is due to violence of nature, military metaphors. Shown in The Prelude by the size and extend of nature, “huge peak”.
• Speakees both discover truths about the world through their encounters with nature. In SOTI, islanders realise inability to control the storm, displayed through the poem’s cyclical content and narrative as the islamders always end up afraid. In The Prelude, there is spiritual development of a poet explored, as the speaker realises their own significance.
Differences between SOTI & The Prelude
• Conflict with nature is displayed differently. In SOTI, it is physical, as if they are being attacked by nature. In The Prelude, it is psychological, nature is inciting fear and redifining their view of the world.
